Fun fact about Level Up!: because of its wording, you can actually level down with level up. E.g. since Horus LV8 mentions Horus LV6 in its text box, and Level Up only cares about if a monster is named in the text box it's a valid target
I remember trying something like this in Duel Links where I tried to use Level Up! on Armed Dragon LV 7 to special summon LV 10 from the deck, and then it just reverts to LV 5
@@polocatfan It actually did appear in the anime, it just appeared later on after Lv7 was already introduced so as a result they weren't able to make it a proper level up target since Lv7 had already been printed into a real card.
@@309kaz this is why I think Konami is wasting opportunity addressing the digital cards as if they were printed on foil. Updating that card text say in Duel Links or later in Master Duel could be a way to update/correct deck interaction or make more sense of some gameplay, since it’s all digital anyway in those spaces.
That and the fact that Silent Magician defeated Atem the Pharoh in the Final Episode of the Duel Monsters Anime. So yeah of course they will be really popular for nostalgia and that generates a LOT of Support. Just watch Blue Eyes and Dark Magician support.
@@swarrior67 Erm...... That's EXACTLY what Phred meant with "Yugi's endgame cards"! Didn't you get that? What did you think you would add with your comment?
@@swarrior67 It's okay. You don't need to apologize. I just thought that with "Yugi's endgame cards" it was kind of obvious, that he meant the final duel against Atem. And then you came along and claimed "That and......" which was both confusing and annoying...... As if you hadn't even read the original comment.......
I do like the LV monsters, but the LV monsters is a classic example of "sounding really good on paper, but in execution really fall short in the long run". I do agree that the main problem is how slow they do when they require certain conditions to level up that the opponent will notice quickly and find a fast way to rid of them before they can do anything. Plus the support cards aren't fast enough to help the LV monsters and they range from okay to down right bad. Most LV monsters are pretty underwhelming save for the Armed Dragon, Dark mimic and Horus monsters. Playing Horus is the most fun as combining with either Jinzo or Royal Decree can shut down 2/3rds of the opponent's deck. While Armed Dragon, Silent Magician, And silent swordsman has evolved from their LV counterparts, I would love to see Horus get the same treatment in the future (other than dark horus and the synchro ver).
Honestly horus is the type of card that would really benefit from just "Horus the black flame dragon" whos the level 4 version that can negate 1 spell and if it does floats into 8. I think stuff like ultimate insect would need a side version thats similar to armed dragon thunder. Like Ultimate Insect Earth or something like that. That can optionally go into a new level 7 or an old one. Like maybe Ultimate Insect Earth level 7 only lowers attack but it lowers it by 1400 and if there is an "ultimate insect" in the graveyard and the UIE7 would be destroyed it could remove an ultimate insect from the graveyard to keep itself alive or something
I've won many battles with the Horus and Jinzo / Royal Decree combo. I disagree with this entry. Plenty of meta decks still use plenty of spells. Horus is still good board control.
@@derekclawson5707 Horus is still amazin i also used the horus jinzo combo. Hes definitely not bad for sure. Sometimes just horus alone is enough to shut down almost entire decks as long asu can protect him
Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman were indeed anime cards, as were the Armed Dragon cards. Interestingly, Horus was used against the main protagonist, and _lost._ To a *_Neos_* deck.
Rule of thumb is, if it works on the anime prior to 5Ds, it sucks in real life. The only remote exception is Cyber Dragon, wich was a staple for completely different reasons, HERO decks after the manga cards debuted, and to a lesser extent Crystal Beasts, because those fuckers have gotten quite a few tops after Crystal Beasts because of the newer support and because those things are basically pendulum monsters, and you can't make such an inherently broken mechanic suck no matter how hard you try.
I enjoy playing a lot of these "failed" mechanics, like LV monsters and Gemini monsters. It's such a shame that they're too gimmicky to become meta. I found the concepts rather interesting.
I feel like sometimes they are only intriguing because they did have 1+ good cards among them (like Horus). Would we care if they were 100% failures and every card sucked with no redeeming qualities? Or do we only care because there was 1-2 cards that showed us their potential?
@@shino4242 I think its because at the end of the day the idea WAS fun. Its a precurser to the current extra deck stuff. They were just figuring it all out. I just wish the effects of these cards warranted all that messing about and that the extra rules they added to make it extra hard were streamlined. I mean Horus worked so much better because it could just kill and level.
LV monsters hold a special place in my heart. I wish they would get retrains and move the leveled up version into the extra deck. Make them less cloggy. As well as giving them worthwhile effects to warrant play.
I wish the next spinoff will do just that. Where they fix LV monsters, invent a new summoning method for LV monsters and give a new mechanic for LV Summon.
+Larry Davis I cannot see them getting both Extra Deck members and strong Effects, for strong Effects seemed justified by being main deck. @@BlossomPathOnStage15 Like have "/LV" next to their Type? Sounds unnecessary tbh. Not to mention that they were too varied for that.
I think the LV mechanic is reminiscent of grinding in RPGS: a whole lot of waiting around just so you can eventually overcome an obstacle just to get walled a few moments later
I always thought this mechanic was really cool back in the day, mostly because it scratched that Pokemon part of my brain that loves seeing my monster buddies evolve and get stronger.
i’ve been playing yugioh ultimate masters 2006 recently, and here’s a funny thing i’ve noticed about the horus line: Lv 4 and Lv 6 are really good against any face-up spells like Swords of Revealing Light or Level Limit - Area B, but if you level up into Lv 8 it technically can’t actually do anything about those cards, since it isn’t immune to spells and can’t negate pre-existing spells
Man that brings back memories. I wish I had my 2006 save file but it died (cart memory or something with the GBA itself?) I had jank stuff like Spirits with Level Conversion Lab, busted Fusion Gate E Heroes, Fifth Gadget and Monarchs. The LV deck I had was jank too. I miss that game, got me through some dark times.
In that game I used mystic swordsman to lock the CPU by returning their face down monster to the deck and they summon face down again XD. Meanwhile I gain lots of LP from other cards so I can beat survival mode.
@@ShadowBaofu Not entiely sure what you mean but if you still have the game cartridge it might just be something as simple as changing the battery. Your save files are most likely gone since i assume it's been a while but might be worth a shot if you want to relive it C: Other than that you can download emulators nowadays and play it on your computer. If you have a DS you can also just "hack" it to use custom firmware and play roms that way (you'd need a DSI or newer thou). I myself am currently playing through and trying to 99% the 2010 game witch is a blast U:
@@ShadowBaofu i have the YGO GX game for DS and my favorite deck there was a somewhat janky somewhat effective Lv deck, where it just did everything possible to get horus on the field ASAP with royal decree. i even ran level modulation because it's one thing to deal with a horus, but dealing with 2, 3 or even 4 usually proved too much.
Mystic Swordsman LV2 is a decent side deck card in Goat Format since it can deal with a lot of annoying flip effect monsters (and set Spirit Reapers) and can be searched with ROTA. Granted people basically never use the LV effect with it, but it's still worth noting that it's an LV card that sees some competitive play.
Way back in the day it did see some Side deck options. Setting facedowns wasnt fully gone yet, but it wasnt really necessary considering you could just special Cyber Dragon to remove 99% of facedowns
@@redmangc spirit reaper. apprentice magician. legendary jujitsu master. magician of faith. no you couldnt just special summon cyber dragon to do the same thing.
all of these cards have seen play i think duel logs is just too new. horus saw play in dream clown since its unaffected by stumbling. dark mimic level 1 was a great metamorphosis target into thousand eyes restrict if you didnt mind giving up the stats vs dekoichi the battlechanted locomotive. mystic swordsman had a ton of targets with tsukuyomi running around everywhere encouraging flip effects. before cyber stein and return from the different dimension it was very rare to win by just saccing your field and vomiting a board into play. Giant Trunade legitimately sucked. It was just a -1. You won by accumulating +1s, which were difficult to come by.
And regular 1-of in modern maindecks. Gravekeeper spy is just that obnoxious to deal with otherwhise, while denying magician of faith, set spirit reaper and the jars is as useful of an effect. It's just a free +1 on set.
I made a Horus deck as one of my first duel links decks to have some kind of success, so It has a special spot in my heart ^^ Also I love those videos where we get to learn a bit about the story of the game and the things the designers tried to do with it.
@Serenity @SeekingtoRestore I don't remember the list itself, but it was just a bunch of staples and some stuff that let me get Horus lv6 on the field easier, so I could go into Horus lv8. I started using the deck mainly because it was one of the first "boss" monsters I got in the game aside from the characters base decks, and it was fun. It worked alright when most of the stuff I was playing against were lvl 4 beatsticks, but definitely nothing crazy 😅
Me too It was a 100% dragon support, all monsters were dragon monsters, and when synchro came i put the dragon tuners to help synchro summoning dragon synchros
Horus has a very special place in my heart. I LOVED that whole line of cards as a kid and I desperately wanted to make it work as a deck on its own. I never really did, but it was such a fun experience. I'm actually glad to hear it got a little play out there in the "Real World", because I just assumed everything I liked back then was awful!
In like, early 2010's I was running a Horus + Jinzo deck that my friends HATED. Once level 8 and Jinzo were out, the game was basically over since about half their deck was useless. (This was before hand traps were super popular)
Some suggestions for failed card mechanics: -Flip monsters: granted, they were super popular when Yugioh started, but they have fallen pretty hard in terms of playability. The only exceptions to this are Subterrors, but that’s only bc Guru is carrying the archetype on its back. -Cards that change the opponent’s monsters to defense position: also super popular in the beginning, Link monsters killed this mechanic hard - Cards with dice rolls/coin flips: 99% of these cards have always been awful -(Edit): Cards with effects that don’t let monsters change battle positions. I used to see these cards a lot when Yugioh started. Now they’re almost nowhere to be seen.
Thanks to a little card called Nobleman of Crossout, and virtually anyway you can keep monsters from flipping like Drillroid? Flip monsters were rendered obsolete from the start.
I wish forcing the change of position of a link monster with a card effect would destroy it, like any card that can’t change battle position without being destroyed.
I had a Armed Dragon Deck back in the days. The Level 10 was my favorite Monster, even though it was hard to summon. But back then strong monsters were meant to be hard to summon, not like in modern YuGiOh where you have a Full field of Boss-Monsters by Turn 1
I don't know who at Konami started this change into turbo boss monster, but i hope they stub their toe on a coffee table because this dynamic is annoying.
Birds have a good trap, Tri-Brigade revolved around their signature trap, DLink had a good trap, WW had 2 great traps, Eldlich is trap-based deck, Dogmatika has a great trap, 2 if you count Shism, Orcust had great trap, Salamangreat revolved around traps, True Draco go without saying. That's last five years of continuous usage
@@nnnp634 I think the point being that trap cards as a whole mechanically make less sense the more the game evolves. Yugioh is a turn 0 type game name; IE you have to be able to respond to what your opponent is doing before you even take your first turn. The end result is what we have now where quick play spells, "hand trap" effect monsters, and traps which have the "activatable from hand" clause are really the only ones that see consistent play (exception of course being things like Skill Drain which are game warping).
@@feelingveryattackedrn5750 Which is super sad since trap cards are one of the most unique and iconic parts of Yugioh. Not being able to use them is not a good thing.
While Silent Lv7 is not good and harder to use compared to Horus Lv8, SOMETIMES it is better, because it is Continuous, while Horus is not. Horus cannot negate the effect of already face-up Spells, for example: Continuous effect of Skyscraper, ignition effect of Fusion Gate, or Trigger effect like Harpie Hunting Ground. Additionally, since Horus does activate, it start chains, allowing negate effect from monsters or traps to respond.
@@JasonGodwin69 many things can be fixed by that, because it jumps up consistency so much. 1 glaring issue: Ritual. FFS who tf thinks that it must exist in decks!? It has different color, different summoning condition, different tribute. It supposed to be an extra deck monster from the start!! Its not, just because back then we dont have extra deck yet. Heck, even fusion just jump out immediately without preparation except poly (remember the PS 2 or 1, i forgot, games who let you bullshit fusion summoning any random cards to make another random card). Other glaring issue: those "cannot be normal summoned cards" if it cannot be normal summoned, then why it exist in the main deck!? Just to be a garnet when you draw them!? Put them in extra deck FFS!! Its only function is as a 'other' summoning mechanic by card efect....its exactly what fusion cards are to poly!! If fusion has their own cards, mechanic, place in extra deck, why those cards cant!?!? Just call it 'Evolve' cards or something and slap random color at them! They even need to make NEX cards in Neos as fusion monster even if they only use 1 material and 1 spell just to be able to place them outside the main deck, and its still fail to rise their competitiveness!! Mask change cards Hero monster as a fusion!? They dont even fuse! Just change their costume using a spell card and you put them as fusion monster just to put them in extra deck to help their consistency!? While ignoring a ton of cards that need that too!? While you can just make a new mechanic and errata them.... Those bullshit Dark Magician Granpa! Those Metalmorph monsters! Neos Wiseman! LV monster! THEY.BELONG.IN.EXTRA.DECK
@A Cool YooToobist Man, its already years since the last time i play YGO for real (except in NDS emulator, i still play it everyday lately. I even make LV monster deck after watching this video, one with Horus & Armed Dragon) so i dont know exactly how far powercreep goes in modern games. All my rants about LV monster & fusion mechanic is the rants i used to have back then and still exist untill nowadays (because they seems like never fix it) plus by following the development of the game by watching YT videos. So just take my opinion with a grain of salt. From what i read: you clearly has good understanding about the effect of LV monsters. Your cards have a basic idea, you follow it throughout the LV increase, and give option in the end. Just like Horus's spell negate effect. LV 6 negate every spell to that monster, and LV 8 can have freedom to negate or not. Adding destruction & pierce is like a little too much, but hey, there's more broken cards out there get printed, so there's no reason this card cant realistically get printed too. Like this video said, LV monster is slow but as long as you can protect it and fulfill it LV up condition it can get better and better. Maybe give more protection like the one that Command Knight has? (As long as theres other monster in your field, this card cant get attacked). Command Knight has it while at the same time has increase attack to every warrior type too, so its not like the effect+protection is unprecedented or too much. Sure it will be too much if you add the pierce and destruction too, but you can just trim it a little. Right now your cards will mostly powercreeped, but you got the spirit & understanding of the mechanic. Keep going at it, mate. (Man, if your cards is printed for real, i really want it for my warriors deck. That plus command knight for even bigger atk increase, Marauding captain for SS, The A. Force spell for even more bigger increase...i can smack those Sacred Beasts with Don Zaloog and destroy their hand)
Horus Lv6 can be leveled up not because he is immune to spell. Because he is used as cost, therefore you can, not because of special ruling or because he's in the artwork. You cannot, however, Fusion Summon Five Head Dragon with Horus Lv6 on the field.
"Level Up!" needs to be an archetype similar to rank up magic - with better versions of the card, archetype specific versions for it that work with those LV themes, and most importantly- allow the level up cards to be searchable. That, and just better LV cards in general (Thunder Armed Dragon is a good start), are what this mechanic really needs.
As a kid, I had both LV Silent Magicians in almost all my decks because I thought LV 8's effect was great... then I learned how to properly play Yugioh 😅 Still my favorite set of cards to this day and played Duel Links just to use the non-level version effectively
Her effect is great tho, but she's slow. Although these days your opponent will draw way enough cards to get your LV4 to a stupidly broken amount of ATK lol.
@@SethJV Loved doing that in Duel Links. There was a card that added spell counters every turn (forgot the name unfortunately) which also helped turn even LV 4 into a beatstick if you so pleased
Fun fact about Dark Lucius lvl8. It couldn't even negate effects properly since it would banish the card it destroyed, thus the monster banished would still be able to activate effects if it had one like a D.D scout plane.
They really just needed more thought put into their abilities and better support. Not everything has to have graveyard effects and be immune to everything. That is just not a healthy game state. A reload effect for when you draw them at in opportune moments and the equivalent of branching evolutions would be nice. Really there isn't much of a point in leveling down currently.
Yeah branching evolutions esp. Your reward for "waiting" should be that you have more information on what the card should lvl up into, and the lvling up then not only makes your card stronger but tailors it to whatever situation you're in. To me the extra decks have gotten too consistent in how they impact gameplay: The extra deck should be special case use only, not a whole extra hand for you to pull whatever you want from with little effort (like the Knightmare link monsters).
Was it possible to avoid a destruction effect by leveling down? Because that might be worth it, you at least don't lose your creature entirely. Or maybe if the level monster has an effect that only triggers when it levels up then it might have a use.
New to the channel. Enjoy the content a lot. Havent played yugioh since like 2015/2016 but was a huge part of my early days. Idea: You mentioned cyber dark impact being an "infamous" pack so as a potential series idea you can go pack by pack demonstrating the relevance of certain cards at that point in time in the meta as well as how its used now/evolved into different cards/ phased or power creeped out Side note: one of the first boxes I bought online was cyber dark impact, feeling nostalgic
I really like these type of videos looking at yugiohs past. I like to see how card games evolve and where they went wrong and tried fix their mistakes. Keep it up my dude, these are my favorites.
yup, especialy, since LV monsters are already an example of fixing a prior game mechanic. silent insects are based on weevils moth-series, while armed dragons are retrains of joeys baby dragon.
I would really love to see Konami give Silent Magician a LV12 form. “Unaffected by your opponents spell and trap card effects. Once per turn, you can (quick effect): Discard 1 card from your hand to negate 1 of your opponent’s monster effects and if you do, destroy that monster. If this effect was activated during your turn, this card cannot declare an attack.” Atk - 4000 / Def - 1000 The artwork? A more divine version of her signature pose but she’s even more beautiful lol with her robes being more elegant and her staff being a bit longer with more crystals and stuff.
I would design it slightly different. Silent magician LV12 Light spellcaster level 12 unaffected by spell or trap card effect. banish 3 spellcasters from gy, special summon this card from hand or gy. If so, this card gains these effects based on number of "silent magician" monsters banished by this effect. 1+: once per turn,(quick effect) send one "silent magician" monster or a card that mentions it from deck to gy(cost), banish 1 card on the field. 2+: once per turn, reveal all spells and trap set on the field, if you do, negate cards on the field based on the number of face up spell cards or spell cards revealed by this effect on the field. 3: your opponent cannot negate or respond by this card's activation
I think the Lv mechanic, or something adjacent to it, is an idea worth revisiting. Their big problem is that they were slow, most of them had underwhelming effects for their special summon conditions, and the boss monsters were basically dead weight in your hand unless you could fulfill the conditions. I think if they were changed to be a little faster, maybe give the boss monsters some utility in the hand (maybe they could shuffle themselves into the deck to fetch out lower-level monsters), they'd be a lot more consistent and fun.
Level 5 or higher LV monsters should just have a hand effect to shuffle them back to the deck and add 1 of their lower LV monster from deck or GY to hand.
That makes sense, though are there any easy use cards that let you return a card from your hand to the deck and maybe draw? Because that could help clear up the problem.
Small detail, but I like how horus is a silver bird, reminds me of a weaker ra because horus is also an Egyptian god. Never thought of ranking up as a better version of the lvl monsters, but they totally are. Making a lvl archetype based on ranking up won be a great idea.
It makes me sad Horus will probably never get a good retrain, or a way to bring it out faster like the Armed Dragon cards have. There's no way you could put a "negate any spell you want, anytime you want, as many times per turn you want for FREE" on an extra deck monster with 3000 Atk without making it so hard to summon there wouldn't be a point in trying. Still think Toon monsters would be perfect for this series
@A Cool YooToobist its a warrior and a dark so good search potential. I think the attack gain isnt really bad. But it could be a better effect. Maybe have the lv 8s attack gain and piercing effect can be on the lv 6 and have the lv 8 not be targeted or immunity to certain effects on top of a minor attack boost or a OPT destruction effect. That said they all destroy a monster. Mostly by attacking. Not sure i really like the battle dependent clauses on them. They should have effects on their own but gain something huge if leveled up. At least the last stage boss monster. Its a good start though. And trust me im no expert. Personally i think there should be a monster that summons a lv monster upon destruction or sent to the Gy. And summon it from anywhere ignoring its summoning condition. Considering how slow they really are. And really have no recovery after being dealt with.
21:30 Hey it's the cards from Sir Ranzborg from 5Ds. He was the opponent in Akiza's first on-screen duel and even had Sakuretsu Armor too. But he never got to use it with Black Rose Dragon and just in general got destroyed😝
Yu-Gi-Oh could benefit from a Flat out Redesign of effects. They could literally save so much card space by making keywords an actual thing in game. Which would also allow them to clarify so many of these random rules I had no idea about.
This archetype is how I got my username. I loved my Level beat down that I used till Xyz came out and I quit playing. I loved the fast style of the deck.
I guess you could also use Level Down!? to protect your level monsters from being removed by some of your opponent's card effects. The idea behind Level Modulation was probably to use it after that.
I guess Level Modulation is also reasonable if you already have a Silent Magician on the field, that way he gets counters faster from your opponent drawing cards, slightly reduces the negative effect of the card.
There is one more lv support card that wasn't mentioned in the video, silent paladin. Silent paladin was a light fairy monster that had the effect that allowed you to pull one silent swordsman/magician lv3/4 from your deck to your hand. Also it has a rly good spell negate effect
I actually learned something in this video. I thought that when a card said ignore the summoning conditions that it could revive monsters in the gy that were not properly special summoned first. I have likely done many misplays because of this.
The part about it having to be properly summoned first isn't correct atleast regarding the ocg. It was always intended to do just that. Ignore the summoning condition. However the tcg thought it would be to op. That's why you're opponent gets to draw 2 cards and the monster you summon cant attack or use its effect. Just like how the winged dragon of ra cant be special summoned. But sphere mode allows you to special summon ra ignoring the summoning conditions even though ra wasn't brought out properly in the first place.
I started to play during the LV monsters era, actually I was defeated by a Horus-Jinzo-Yata deck the first time I went to a local game shop. And decided to build that deck...today I still have those cards, along with my Monarch's deck....this video just unlocked a lot of memories.
Honestly these level cards were a really good concept with a really bad execution The armed dragon cards were always some of my favorites which is why I was looking forward to the new versions that came out
i LOVE the lvl mechanic archetype. Its not good but for some reason it just does it for me as a mechanic in the game. I have been waiting for its "failed mechanic" video ever since I watched the one you made on gemini cards. thank you and finally! it is unfortunate how he glossed over armed dragon lv 10 and winged kuriboh lv 10 (kuriboh being a lv card i didnt even know existed in the first place) but ill just have to assume their effects were similar enough to the others that it didnt warrant mentioning... or just pause the video to read them but thats way too much work lol
I wonder if they could give the LV mechanic its own Field Spell, like Gemini. Their own "Catalyst Field" Something that searches Any "LV" Monster on activation (or Maybe a search effect that limits it to specific LV Monsters and not every Monster that has "lv" in its name, Maybe something like how the "Number" Monsters that require a specific "Number"), and that once per turn lets You send 1 LV Monster from your Field to the GY, to special Summon a Level Monster who share name With it and it is treated as a Special Summon by its Level up effect (although I wonder how would it would help the mechanic so You Level up the proper Monster and not just Level up any Level Monster into Horus) Although I wonder how would it be worded out?
i would make it search level up on activation, and then you can send 1 LV Monster from your hand back to your deck in order ro seach a LV monster that shares its name. and during the end phase you can add 1 level up from your graveyard to the top of your deck (or hand, it depends)
When they first came out the game was slower. Most of the level monsters effects just plain sucked. They only ones used in my area was horus, mystic and silent. And mimics occasionally for the draw effect (since back then the ban list hit and extra draw power was at a premium). With the enemy controller, snatch steal, and mind control blitz Era horus 6 and sometimes 8 were in a lot of my area decks to stop everyone taking all your monsters and beating you with them. Mystic 2 was used a lot for facedowns. And opponents often scooped once horus 8 or end level silent hit the field because their spells were all going to be negated and they couldn't play without spells (i always played to the end because my decks never relied on spells so I wasn't as crippled). They only fell out in my area once snatch, econ, and mind control were hit on the ban list in one way or another or errata and when volcanic queen and lava golem got popular. Once the "tribute your opponent's monster" monster effect came out on a number of monster cards is really what sealed the end of those level monsters. The duelist that aren't net deckers often are able to think outside the box and would probably see that they could still be used properly today. Especially with all the spell card slinging going on. Though monster effects would still be an issue.
@@scrubthegod780 I actually have a really good deck. Made it myself and got to 2700 rank on nexus with it. I can send it to you if you want, I use everything when it comes to social media so whichever one you’re most comfortable with, u can give me.
I was actually very excited about the LV monsters when they first came out and wound up with various Armed Dragons and Horus cards. I really liked the Armed Dragons and wound up getting a very viable deck built around the Armed Dragons and didn't realize that there was a Armed Dragon LV10 until years later after I stopped collecting.
I can confirm that the masked knights are actually really good in red eyes decks. Use the max level as slash material, get the low level as your normal summon the next turn and soon you got multiple beaters and consistent burn.
Tea's holy guard ability is fun to use when crashing into things to activate effects. You take no damage and she's not really got that many good abilities otherwise.
As someone who competitively played until 2005, my favorite deck of all time was my Mystic Swordsman deck in 2004. It could have been a top tier deck if it wasn't for every deck at that time being Chaos decks.
Mystic swordsman seems like it had a pretty good effect for the time. Too bad the chaos decks were so absurdly broken (wasn't that the first time tier-0 decks started showing up?)
Yes the chaos deck was the first tier 0 deck in the game. Even after Chaos Emperor Dragon and BLS were banned, Chaos was still a top tier deck thanks to a playset of Chaos Sorcerer. Mystic Swordman's effect at time was quite powerful and it's lv 2 monster was used a lot in sideboards and in decks with a warrior toolbox featuring Reinforcements of the Army. It was used to stop the monsters like Mystic Tomato, Shining Angel, and Apprentice Magician from triggering their 'destroyed by battle' effects and to stop Magician of Faith from using its effect
Fascinating thoughts on the Level monsters- always thought Silent Swordsman was a really cool card, but I also love your idea of Xyz Rank-Up monsters being the next "evolution" of Level cards! Makes me want to build my own Xyz archetype operating on continuous level-modding...
Ultimate Insect was my boss monster in yugioh tagforce 5. Another tip for leveling up LV that needs to be in the standby phase: Use monsters with effect like Mystic Tomato that summons the low LV monster after when it is destroyed, the opponent finished his attack and you bring out your fresh LV monster unharmed then you start your turn and it levels up. Pretty basic stuff PS: I only accept yugioh up to Xyz summons, pendulums and link summons are bonkers and should never have been created
I like this series of explaining game mechanics instead of constantly top tens (not that they're bad mind you), I'd say keep it up, and if you want a new idea, maybe explain or cover some archetypes that you like to explain how they are played, explain they're defining cards, and they're past and current relevancy.
Masked Knights were used by the Dueling Assassin Akiza faced in the first round of the Fortune Cup (Think the 5D's version of the Rare Hunters except all the ones the characters dueled were named. Unlike DM where the first one was only named Seeker in one of the spin-off games for the GBA) in the 5D's anime. And funnily enough he ALSO used Sakuretsu Armor)
Yubel replacing itself on destruction is another way that could work better as a level up mechanic as long as the condition is open enough to allow triggering it yourself and not limiting it to one stage per turn which is probably the part that is the biggest drawback on LV monsters, if you could just upgrade the monster instantly when the condition is met instead of making the condition take a full turn of delay between forms, LV monster mechanics could easily be improved to be viable. A strong archetype of level monsters wouldn't be hard to make viable just by making them a few useful level 4 or lower monsters with a single better level 5 or higher form each and possibly letting them summon the higher level form from the graveyard as well as the hand and deck, maybe even give them a Gusto like summon loop to make it harder to stop the higher level forms from being brought out.
Dark Horus was pretty bad, honestly. You had to get your opponent to resolve a spell card effect, and it only let you special summon level 4 dark monsters exclusively, so it could've easily had plenty more viable targets if they didn't limit them to just a certain level
oh now I get why the XYZ mechanic was created. This videos helps understanding the design decisions. Also, Silent archetype is a pay to win deck in Duel Links to this day. You cannot obtain the structure deck with gems at all.
It was funny for me. I got to the part about masked knight being dual links exclusive and my brain saw the artwork for the first one and immediately said “masked knight level the 3rd”. Probably the only thing from that anime tournament that stuck in my mind.
I remember everyone and their mother run Horus Dragon Lv. 8 + Royal Decree back then... it's a easy way to lock down 2/3 of your opponent deck and rather difficult to recover from.
.... still play horus lv8 to this day, i just love that damn card .... and when i heard they made a horus archtypedeck i was hopeful, but my god where my hopes shattered ... imo what they could do is create a continuous card or fieldcard to either search lvl up! from the deck or get it back from the graveyard whenever a lv monster has been summoned or a recoverycard where if you had 2 lv monsters in the grave/banished you put 1 back into the deck and one on your hand ... OR they create a retrain of lv up! where you can banish a lower lv monster from the hand or grave to summon the next lv monster from the deck or grave ...
I ran Horus and Armed Dragons back in the day. I have so much love for them that I prefer them to XYZ. Blame that Horus was a FIRE attribute Dragon, which made me want it.
Field spell card with once per turn distraction protection and allows you special summon the boss monster to prevent bricking and treated like it was summoned normally or thunder arm dragon effect
Always love your vids hiru💪💯. I swear I can watch your all your videos from WoW to Yugioh 😭. Just love your content man keep up the amazing work👏. Even if it feels like I'm not watching I'm watching aleast one of your various widespread of vids you got bro👌.
I got regional success with Silent Magician LV 4 in a control Spellcaster deck. The meta was Bottomless Trap hole so it always entered the field. I used Secret Village of Spellcasters and Royal Decree to lock the opponents and Silent Magician was there to gather Spell Counters for Arcane Magician or Magical Exemplar, but people were always afraid of it leveling up so they either targeted or prepared for the LV 8. The great thing was that LV 8 wasn't even in the deck, so it worked as a great bluffing tool. LV 4 with spell counter was way more useful for the deck than LV 8. It was my favorite meta ever, I had great success with it and still have the deck as a token of my childhood.
I remember having an insect deck, where I managed to get Ultimate Insect LV7,while having Solidarity and Burden of the Mighty on the field. It's so satisfying making it destroy monsters who supposed to have high attacks lol.
@TheDuelLog: the reason horus the black flame dragon lv6 can still be send as cost by level up spell card to special summoned its level 8 version from hand or deck with ignore summoning condition, despite being unaffected by spell card, it is because it is cost, cost is not an effect, or a requirement is not consider an effect neither.
9:00 You forget to mention that _spell counters_ themselves recieved their own archetype when this came out. It still doesn't make the card amazing by any means, but there is like, 3 monsters that do spell counter shenanigans in removing or distributing them for effects, a weird trap card lodestone thing that can add more, and then there is mystical library of course, which lets you draw for counters. I played that deck on the kitchen table and at school back in the day, and it wasn't like, unplayable or anything. Actually was fairly decent. Days were thin back in the then, and spell caster support was readily enough available to 14 year old me before the days of plentiful LGS's and online card markets.
when I was a kid, I used a lot of allowance money on the booster pack with the first wave of Lv cards. I really wanted to get Horus cards, but I never got them 😢
I used to run the Horus line with shrink and Jinjo as the LVL 6 Horus wasn't as a bad top deck and the risk of bricking into lvl 8 was worth taking because of its effect.
I ran a silent magician deck in duel links to quite a bit of success when I was new to the game. Getting a 3500 beatstick on the field in potentially just a couple of turns was pretty good for duel links back then
I got video idea:- Top ten cards spell or trap or monster that you have to shuffle your deck after using its effect. You could mini-series on that topic, sure alot of cards say shuffle your deck in the text. also suggestion:- Top worst cards spells or monster or traps that makes you shuffle your deck part of the effect.
Fun fact about Level Up!: because of its wording, you can actually level down with level up. E.g. since Horus LV8 mentions Horus LV6 in its text box, and Level Up only cares about if a monster is named in the text box it's a valid target
I remember trying something like this in Duel Links where I tried to use Level Up! on Armed Dragon LV 7 to special summon LV 10 from the deck, and then it just reverts to LV 5
@@polocatfan It actually did appear in the anime, it just appeared later on after Lv7 was already introduced so as a result they weren't able to make it a proper level up target since Lv7 had already been printed into a real card.
@@GravityFaiz happened to me on the DS game a bunch of times. " Can only special summon by offering lv7 as tribute" is a bitch.
@@309kaz this is why I think Konami is wasting opportunity addressing the digital cards as if they were printed on foil. Updating that card text say in Duel Links or later in Master Duel could be a way to update/correct deck interaction or make more sense of some gameplay, since it’s all digital anyway in those spaces.
@@GravityFaiz level 10 isn't even that good inmo and too damn hard to get out on DL hahaha
The Silents aren’t just any anime cards, but Yugi’s endgame cards, which is the most anime a card can be.
Fuck, I JUST wanted to comment the exact same thing... 😅
That and the fact that Silent Magician defeated Atem the Pharoh in the Final Episode of the Duel Monsters Anime.
So yeah of course they will be really popular for nostalgia and that generates a LOT of Support.
Just watch Blue Eyes and Dark Magician support.
@@swarrior67 Erm...... That's EXACTLY what Phred meant with "Yugi's endgame cards"! Didn't you get that? What did you think you would add with your comment?
@@chanceneck8072 Ohhhh Sorry. My bad.
@@swarrior67 It's okay. You don't need to apologize. I just thought that with "Yugi's endgame cards" it was kind of obvious, that he meant the final duel against Atem. And then you came along and claimed "That and......" which was both confusing and annoying...... As if you hadn't even read the original comment.......
I do like the LV monsters, but the LV monsters is a classic example of "sounding really good on paper, but in execution really fall short in the long run". I do agree that the main problem is how slow they do when they require certain conditions to level up that the opponent will notice quickly and find a fast way to rid of them before they can do anything. Plus the support cards aren't fast enough to help the LV monsters and they range from okay to down right bad. Most LV monsters are pretty underwhelming save for the Armed Dragon, Dark mimic and Horus monsters. Playing Horus is the most fun as combining with either Jinzo or Royal Decree can shut down 2/3rds of the opponent's deck. While Armed Dragon, Silent Magician, And silent swordsman has evolved from their LV counterparts, I would love to see Horus get the same treatment in the future (other than dark horus and the synchro ver).
Honestly horus is the type of card that would really benefit from just "Horus the black flame dragon" whos the level 4 version that can negate 1 spell and if it does floats into 8. I think stuff like ultimate insect would need a side version thats similar to armed dragon thunder. Like Ultimate Insect Earth or something like that. That can optionally go into a new level 7 or an old one. Like maybe Ultimate Insect Earth level 7 only lowers attack but it lowers it by 1400 and if there is an "ultimate insect" in the graveyard and the UIE7 would be destroyed it could remove an ultimate insect from the graveyard to keep itself alive or something
I've won many battles with the Horus and Jinzo / Royal Decree combo. I disagree with this entry. Plenty of meta decks still use plenty of spells. Horus is still good board control.
Silent swordsman is pretty good.
@@derekclawson5707 Horus is still amazin i also used the horus jinzo combo. Hes definitely not bad for sure. Sometimes just horus alone is enough to shut down almost entire decks as long asu can protect him
I agree that almost all level monsters are bad but Horus and Armed Dragon are the best.
Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman were indeed anime cards, as were the Armed Dragon cards. Interestingly, Horus was used against the main protagonist, and _lost._ To a *_Neos_* deck.
Well to be fair a Horus deck can’t beat a deck centered around plot armor
Don't forget that the guy using Horus also had Royal Decree.
I liked the way Jaden used Contact Fusion to get around those lockdown effects, slightly better dueling than his one off equips.
@@alfredgomez3128 dudes misplay was he didn’t destroy cross porter and that cost him the game. Jaden would’ve been fucked without it
Rule of thumb is, if it works on the anime prior to 5Ds, it sucks in real life.
The only remote exception is Cyber Dragon, wich was a staple for completely different reasons, HERO decks after the manga cards debuted, and to a lesser extent Crystal Beasts, because those fuckers have gotten quite a few tops after Crystal Beasts because of the newer support and because those things are basically pendulum monsters, and you can't make such an inherently broken mechanic suck no matter how hard you try.
I enjoy playing a lot of these "failed" mechanics, like LV monsters and Gemini monsters. It's such a shame that they're too gimmicky to become meta. I found the concepts rather interesting.
Makes me wander what's stopping Konami from retraining the LVL/Gemini?
I feel like sometimes they are only intriguing because they did have 1+ good cards among them (like Horus). Would we care if they were 100% failures and every card sucked with no redeeming qualities? Or do we only care because there was 1-2 cards that showed us their potential?
Gemini monster were broken a couple years ago... I feel like they are a lot more usable...
I've seen a couple of decks recently...
@@shino4242 I think its because at the end of the day the idea WAS fun. Its a precurser to the current extra deck stuff. They were just figuring it all out. I just wish the effects of these cards warranted all that messing about and that the extra rules they added to make it extra hard were streamlined. I mean Horus worked so much better because it could just kill and level.
@@goni2493 because the idea is already here in its modern form with xyz monsters ranking up from each other, and link climbing
I love how in almost all of these videos we see a variant of dragon rulers carrying over some of this bad cards
LV monsters hold a special place in my heart. I wish they would get retrains and move the leveled up version into the extra deck. Make them less cloggy. As well as giving them worthwhile effects to warrant play.
I think they should receive the same treatment as Armed Dragon Thunder
@@eiilos98 at the very least
I wish the next spinoff will do just that. Where they fix LV monsters, invent a new summoning method for LV monsters and give a new mechanic for LV Summon.
+Larry Davis
I cannot see them getting both Extra Deck members and strong Effects, for strong Effects seemed justified by being main deck.
@@BlossomPathOnStage15
Like have "/LV" next to their Type? Sounds unnecessary tbh. Not to mention that they were too varied for that.
@@Bezaliel13 Like I said new method and mechanic for them. Maybe it's finally time to make a new colour the red frame card for LV.
Top 10 cards that give effects to xyz monsters when detached or when used as material...
I like that one
Yeaaaa
Idk
Not a bad idea.
@@alexrazmus1798 idk
I think the LV mechanic is reminiscent of grinding in RPGS: a whole lot of waiting around just so you can eventually overcome an obstacle just to get walled a few moments later
That sounds like a JRPG.
It is just slow to wait nowadays, need more active
Smt..
@marsella527
Only for the P2W players (A.K.A the meta nowadays) To show up and just ruin your day.
I always thought this mechanic was really cool back in the day, mostly because it scratched that Pokemon part of my brain that loves seeing my monster buddies evolve and get stronger.
i’ve been playing yugioh ultimate masters 2006 recently, and here’s a funny thing i’ve noticed about the horus line: Lv 4 and Lv 6 are really good against any face-up spells like Swords of Revealing Light or Level Limit - Area B, but if you level up into Lv 8 it technically can’t actually do anything about those cards, since it isn’t immune to spells and can’t negate pre-existing spells
Man that brings back memories. I wish I had my 2006 save file but it died (cart memory or something with the GBA itself?) I had jank stuff like Spirits with Level Conversion Lab, busted Fusion Gate E Heroes, Fifth Gadget and Monarchs. The LV deck I had was jank too. I miss that game, got me through some dark times.
In that game I used mystic swordsman to lock the CPU by returning their face down monster to the deck and they summon face down again XD. Meanwhile I gain lots of LP from other cards so I can beat survival mode.
@@ShadowBaofu Not entiely sure what you mean but if you still have the game cartridge it might just be something as simple as changing the battery. Your save files are most likely gone since i assume it's been a while but might be worth a shot if you want to relive it C: Other than that you can download emulators nowadays and play it on your computer.
If you have a DS you can also just "hack" it to use custom firmware and play roms that way (you'd need a DSI or newer thou). I myself am currently playing through and trying to 99% the 2010 game witch is a blast U:
@@ShadowBaofu i have the YGO GX game for DS and my favorite deck there was a somewhat janky somewhat effective Lv deck, where it just did everything possible to get horus on the field ASAP with royal decree. i even ran level modulation because it's one thing to deal with a horus, but dealing with 2, 3 or even 4 usually proved too much.
My brother still has his yugioh 5ds stardust accelerator ds game and his LV deck got him through at least the first portion of the story
Mystic Swordsman LV2 is a decent side deck card in Goat Format since it can deal with a lot of annoying flip effect monsters (and set Spirit Reapers) and can be searched with ROTA. Granted people basically never use the LV effect with it, but it's still worth noting that it's an LV card that sees some competitive play.
It sees a ton of play in Warrior decks in Goat and some will run up to 3 Main Deck
Way back in the day it did see some Side deck options. Setting facedowns wasnt fully gone yet, but it wasnt really necessary considering you could just special Cyber Dragon to remove 99% of facedowns
@@redmangc spirit reaper. apprentice magician. legendary jujitsu master. magician of faith. no you couldnt just special summon cyber dragon to do the same thing.
all of these cards have seen play i think duel logs is just too new. horus saw play in dream clown since its unaffected by stumbling. dark mimic level 1 was a great metamorphosis target into thousand eyes restrict if you didnt mind giving up the stats vs dekoichi the battlechanted locomotive. mystic swordsman had a ton of targets with tsukuyomi running around everywhere encouraging flip effects.
before cyber stein and return from the different dimension it was very rare to win by just saccing your field and vomiting a board into play. Giant Trunade legitimately sucked. It was just a -1. You won by accumulating +1s, which were difficult to come by.
And regular 1-of in modern maindecks. Gravekeeper spy is just that obnoxious to deal with otherwhise, while denying magician of faith, set spirit reaper and the jars is as useful of an effect. It's just a free +1 on set.
I made a Horus deck as one of my first duel links decks to have some kind of success, so It has a special spot in my heart ^^
Also I love those videos where we get to learn a bit about the story of the game and the things the designers tried to do with it.
show us the horus deck!
I also used to play Horus way back when in duel links. Man I sucked lmao
@Serenity @SeekingtoRestore I don't remember the list itself, but it was just a bunch of staples and some stuff that let me get Horus lv6 on the field easier, so I could go into Horus lv8. I started using the deck mainly because it was one of the first "boss" monsters I got in the game aside from the characters base decks, and it was fun. It worked alright when most of the stuff I was playing against were lvl 4 beatsticks, but definitely nothing crazy 😅
Me too
It was a 100% dragon support, all monsters were dragon monsters, and when synchro came i put the dragon tuners to help synchro summoning dragon synchros
Sameeeee. I love Horus.
Love LV monsters or hate them, we can all agree that the world would benefit from more Silent Magician fanart.
You simp 😂
Based
Them hips don’t lie
Horus has a very special place in my heart. I LOVED that whole line of cards as a kid and I desperately wanted to make it work as a deck on its own. I never really did, but it was such a fun experience. I'm actually glad to hear it got a little play out there in the "Real World", because I just assumed everything I liked back then was awful!
Man I remember the DS games when I was a kid, thinking those Horus cards were so cool
They definetly hold a special place in my heart
In like, early 2010's I was running a Horus + Jinzo deck that my friends HATED. Once level 8 and Jinzo were out, the game was basically over since about half their deck was useless. (This was before hand traps were super popular)
Some suggestions for failed card mechanics:
-Flip monsters: granted, they were super popular when Yugioh started, but they have fallen pretty hard in terms of playability. The only exceptions to this are Subterrors, but that’s only bc Guru is carrying the archetype on its back.
-Cards that change the opponent’s monsters to defense position: also super popular in the beginning, Link monsters killed this mechanic hard
- Cards with dice rolls/coin flips: 99% of these cards have always been awful
-(Edit): Cards with effects that don’t let monsters change battle positions. I used to see these cards a lot when Yugioh started. Now they’re almost nowhere to be seen.
Thanks to a little card called Nobleman of Crossout, and virtually anyway you can keep monsters from flipping like Drillroid? Flip monsters were rendered obsolete from the start.
Not really. Bagooska is still pretty damn good in the modern meta (Usually paired with links so you can combo and attack unhindered).
The 2nd one he kinda already covered with the Mother spider video
@@robinlinh True. I guess I want him to go into more detail with these kinds of cards.
I wish forcing the change of position of a link monster with a card effect would destroy it, like any card that can’t change battle position without being destroyed.
I had a Armed Dragon Deck back in the days. The Level 10 was my favorite Monster, even though it was hard to summon.
But back then strong monsters were meant to be hard to summon, not like in modern YuGiOh where you have a Full field of Boss-Monsters by Turn 1
yea bro chaos emperor dragon and black luster soldier envoy of the beginning were really hard to summon 😂
@@user-vs8nu8id5q why did you think they were banned all those years?
@@LeMisterRai there were other strong monsters that were easy to summon back the dark armed dragon dark magican of chaos
@@user-vs8nu8id5q DAD was further down the line, when boss monsters started to become easy to summon, and even at that point it got Limited
I don't know who at Konami started this change into turbo boss monster, but i hope they stub their toe on a coffee table because this dynamic is annoying.
Speaking of “too slow”, I’m looking forward to Failed Mehanics: 95% of Trap Cards
Jinzo and Quickplay.
How about "Failed Mechanics. The splitting of the OCG & TCG"
Birds have a good trap, Tri-Brigade revolved around their signature trap, DLink had a good trap, WW had 2 great traps, Eldlich is trap-based deck, Dogmatika has a great trap, 2 if you count Shism, Orcust had great trap, Salamangreat revolved around traps, True Draco go without saying. That's last five years of continuous usage
@@nnnp634 I think the point being that trap cards as a whole mechanically make less sense the more the game evolves. Yugioh is a turn 0 type game name; IE you have to be able to respond to what your opponent is doing before you even take your first turn. The end result is what we have now where quick play spells, "hand trap" effect monsters, and traps which have the "activatable from hand" clause are really the only ones that see consistent play (exception of course being things like Skill Drain which are game warping).
@@feelingveryattackedrn5750 Which is super sad since trap cards are one of the most unique and iconic parts of Yugioh. Not being able to use them is not a good thing.
While Silent Lv7 is not good and harder to use compared to Horus Lv8, SOMETIMES it is better, because it is Continuous, while Horus is not. Horus cannot negate the effect of already face-up Spells, for example: Continuous effect of Skyscraper, ignition effect of Fusion Gate, or Trigger effect like Harpie Hunting Ground. Additionally, since Horus does activate, it start chains, allowing negate effect from monsters or traps to respond.
Putting higher-LV monsters into the Extra Deck as an entirely new red-backgrounded Monster Type would fix EVERYTHING wrong with these monsters.
i mean silent swords man lv7 works against dark ruler no more, while horus lv8 does not ;)
Also I think Naturia beast already outclasses Horus level 8 because it does the same thing and it’s easier to bring out but it’s weaker in atk power.
@@JasonGodwin69 many things can be fixed by that, because it jumps up consistency so much.
1 glaring issue: Ritual. FFS who tf thinks that it must exist in decks!? It has different color, different summoning condition, different tribute. It supposed to be an extra deck monster from the start!! Its not, just because back then we dont have extra deck yet. Heck, even fusion just jump out immediately without preparation except poly (remember the PS 2 or 1, i forgot, games who let you bullshit fusion summoning any random cards to make another random card).
Other glaring issue: those "cannot be normal summoned cards" if it cannot be normal summoned, then why it exist in the main deck!? Just to be a garnet when you draw them!? Put them in extra deck FFS!! Its only function is as a 'other' summoning mechanic by card efect....its exactly what fusion cards are to poly!! If fusion has their own cards, mechanic, place in extra deck, why those cards cant!?!? Just call it 'Evolve' cards or something and slap random color at them! They even need to make NEX cards in Neos as fusion monster even if they only use 1 material and 1 spell just to be able to place them outside the main deck, and its still fail to rise their competitiveness!! Mask change cards Hero monster as a fusion!? They dont even fuse! Just change their costume using a spell card and you put them as fusion monster just to put them in extra deck to help their consistency!? While ignoring a ton of cards that need that too!? While you can just make a new mechanic and errata them....
Those bullshit Dark Magician Granpa! Those Metalmorph monsters! Neos Wiseman! LV monster! THEY.BELONG.IN.EXTRA.DECK
@A Cool YooToobist Man, its already years since the last time i play YGO for real (except in NDS emulator, i still play it everyday lately. I even make LV monster deck after watching this video, one with Horus & Armed Dragon) so i dont know exactly how far powercreep goes in modern games. All my rants about LV monster & fusion mechanic is the rants i used to have back then and still exist untill nowadays (because they seems like never fix it) plus by following the development of the game by watching YT videos. So just take my opinion with a grain of salt.
From what i read: you clearly has good understanding about the effect of LV monsters. Your cards have a basic idea, you follow it throughout the LV increase, and give option in the end. Just like Horus's spell negate effect. LV 6 negate every spell to that monster, and LV 8 can have freedom to negate or not. Adding destruction & pierce is like a little too much, but hey, there's more broken cards out there get printed, so there's no reason this card cant realistically get printed too.
Like this video said, LV monster is slow but as long as you can protect it and fulfill it LV up condition it can get better and better. Maybe give more protection like the one that Command Knight has? (As long as theres other monster in your field, this card cant get attacked). Command Knight has it while at the same time has increase attack to every warrior type too, so its not like the effect+protection is unprecedented or too much. Sure it will be too much if you add the pierce and destruction too, but you can just trim it a little.
Right now your cards will mostly powercreeped, but you got the spirit & understanding of the mechanic. Keep going at it, mate.
(Man, if your cards is printed for real, i really want it for my warriors deck. That plus command knight for even bigger atk increase, Marauding captain for SS, The A. Force spell for even more bigger increase...i can smack those Sacred Beasts with Don Zaloog and destroy their hand)
Horus Lv6 can be leveled up not because he is immune to spell. Because he is used as cost, therefore you can, not because of special ruling or because he's in the artwork. You cannot, however, Fusion Summon Five Head Dragon with Horus Lv6 on the field.
Interesting
Interesting
So cost bypasses inmunity... Interesting
Reminds me of Kaijus
@@ianr.navahuber2195 what's with kaijus?
@@LeoGuitarize that You can tribute Monsters inmune to other Cards effects to summon the kaijus
"Level Up!" needs to be an archetype similar to rank up magic - with better versions of the card, archetype specific versions for it that work with those LV themes, and most importantly- allow the level up cards to be searchable.
That, and just better LV cards in general (Thunder Armed Dragon is a good start), are what this mechanic really needs.
As a kid, I had both LV Silent Magicians in almost all my decks because I thought LV 8's effect was great... then I learned how to properly play Yugioh 😅
Still my favorite set of cards to this day and played Duel Links just to use the non-level version effectively
Her effect is great tho, but she's slow. Although these days your opponent will draw way enough cards to get your LV4 to a stupidly broken amount of ATK lol.
About time other LV monsters get Armed Dragon Thunder treatment.
@@SethJV Loved doing that in Duel Links. There was a card that added spell counters every turn (forgot the name unfortunately) which also helped turn even LV 4 into a beatstick if you so pleased
Fun fact about Dark Lucius lvl8.
It couldn't even negate effects properly since it would banish the card it destroyed, thus the monster banished would still be able to activate effects if it had one like a D.D scout plane.
Looks like it would still negates their effs
They really just needed more thought put into their abilities and better support. Not everything has to have graveyard effects and be immune to everything. That is just not a healthy game state. A reload effect for when you draw them at in opportune moments and the equivalent of branching evolutions would be nice. Really there isn't much of a point in leveling down currently.
Yeah branching evolutions esp. Your reward for "waiting" should be that you have more information on what the card should lvl up into, and the lvling up then not only makes your card stronger but tailors it to whatever situation you're in. To me the extra decks have gotten too consistent in how they impact gameplay: The extra deck should be special case use only, not a whole extra hand for you to pull whatever you want from with little effort (like the Knightmare link monsters).
Was it possible to avoid a destruction effect by leveling down? Because that might be worth it, you at least don't lose your creature entirely. Or maybe if the level monster has an effect that only triggers when it levels up then it might have a use.
New to the channel. Enjoy the content a lot. Havent played yugioh since like 2015/2016 but was a huge part of my early days.
Idea: You mentioned cyber dark impact being an "infamous" pack so as a potential series idea you can go pack by pack demonstrating the relevance of certain cards at that point in time in the meta as well as how its used now/evolved into different cards/ phased or power creeped out
Side note: one of the first boxes I bought online was cyber dark impact, feeling nostalgic
Hell yeah! Cant wait for a retrain of the Horus Archetype, I used to use them Alot way back in the day!
They could even make it an Xyz Evolution style of gameplay.
I really like these type of videos looking at yugiohs past. I like to see how card games evolve and where they went wrong and tried fix their mistakes. Keep it up my dude, these are my favorites.
yup, especialy, since LV monsters are already an example of fixing a prior game mechanic. silent insects are based on weevils moth-series, while armed dragons are retrains of joeys baby dragon.
I would really love to see Konami give Silent Magician a LV12 form. “Unaffected by your opponents spell and trap card effects. Once per turn, you can (quick effect): Discard 1 card from your hand to negate 1 of your opponent’s monster effects and if you do, destroy that monster. If this effect was activated during your turn, this card cannot declare an attack.” Atk - 4000 / Def - 1000
The artwork? A more divine version of her signature pose but she’s even more beautiful lol with her robes being more elegant and her staff being a bit longer with more crystals and stuff.
So... basically Dragoon?
Hmm
I would design it slightly different.
Silent magician LV12
Light spellcaster level 12
unaffected by spell or trap card effect.
banish 3 spellcasters from gy, special summon this card from hand or gy. If so, this card gains these effects based on number of "silent magician" monsters banished by this effect.
1+: once per turn,(quick effect) send one "silent magician" monster or a card that mentions it from deck to gy(cost), banish 1 card on the field.
2+: once per turn, reveal all spells and trap set on the field, if you do, negate cards on the field based on the number of face up spell cards or spell cards revealed by this effect on the field.
3: your opponent cannot negate or respond by this card's activation
I'm so happy that Horus the Black Flame Dragon saw competitive play, he's my favourite card.
I think the Lv mechanic, or something adjacent to it, is an idea worth revisiting. Their big problem is that they were slow, most of them had underwhelming effects for their special summon conditions, and the boss monsters were basically dead weight in your hand unless you could fulfill the conditions. I think if they were changed to be a little faster, maybe give the boss monsters some utility in the hand (maybe they could shuffle themselves into the deck to fetch out lower-level monsters), they'd be a lot more consistent and fun.
Level 5 or higher LV monsters should just have a hand effect to shuffle them back to the deck and add 1 of their lower LV monster from deck or GY to hand.
That makes sense, though are there any easy use cards that let you return a card from your hand to the deck and maybe draw? Because that could help clear up the problem.
Small detail, but I like how horus is a silver bird, reminds me of a weaker ra because horus is also an Egyptian god. Never thought of ranking up as a better version of the lvl monsters, but they totally are. Making a lvl archetype based on ranking up won be a great idea.
It makes me sad Horus will probably never get a good retrain, or a way to bring it out faster like the Armed Dragon cards have. There's no way you could put a "negate any spell you want, anytime you want, as many times per turn you want for FREE" on an extra deck monster with 3000 Atk without making it so hard to summon there wouldn't be a point in trying. Still think Toon monsters would be perfect for this series
Horus MIGHT have a chance as it was played in GX by some filler character.
Id just be happy with better support to get it out easier. Something like Melody of dragons but for horus lv 6.
@A Cool YooToobist its a warrior and a dark so good search potential. I think the attack gain isnt really bad. But it could be a better effect. Maybe have the lv 8s attack gain and piercing effect can be on the lv 6 and have the lv 8 not be targeted or immunity to certain effects on top of a minor attack boost or a OPT destruction effect.
That said they all destroy a monster. Mostly by attacking. Not sure i really like the battle dependent clauses on them.
They should have effects on their own but gain something huge if leveled up. At least the last stage boss monster.
Its a good start though. And trust me im no expert.
Personally i think there should be a monster that summons a lv monster upon destruction or sent to the Gy. And summon it from anywhere ignoring its summoning condition. Considering how slow they really are. And really have no recovery after being dealt with.
21:30
Hey it's the cards from Sir Ranzborg from 5Ds.
He was the opponent in Akiza's first on-screen duel and even had Sakuretsu Armor too. But he never got to use it with Black Rose Dragon and just in general got destroyed😝
He also used THE WARRIOR RETURNING ALIVE (Or as he called it in the dub The Warrior Returneth Alive)
As a guy making a card game of my own, I LOVE this series! Could you also go over specific archetypes with neat ideas that fell flat?
Yu-Gi-Oh could benefit from a Flat out Redesign of effects. They could literally save so much card space by making keywords an actual thing in game.
Which would also allow them to clarify so many of these random rules I had no idea about.
Yeah, I heard "Excavate" became a thing with Sylvans.
@@nunyabiznes33 which most likely is accompanied by a 3 paragraph description
This archetype is how I got my username. I loved my Level beat down that I used till Xyz came out and I quit playing. I loved the fast style of the deck.
Did you just call level monsters fast?
@@Otzkar They were fast for me and others I played against
Masked Knights were actually in 5ds so they were adapting an anime only card to the game which is neat
I guess you could also use Level Down!? to protect your level monsters from being removed by some of your opponent's card effects. The idea behind Level Modulation was probably to use it after that.
Also to get an extra attack during the battle phase.
I guess Level Modulation is also reasonable if you already have a Silent Magician on the field, that way he gets counters faster from your opponent drawing cards, slightly reduces the negative effect of the card.
honestly one of the best and diverse "top 10 channels" out there, always in-depth and easy to follow explanations and soothing voice
LV monsters were so fun to me as a kid. I played the hell out of them in YGO GX Tag Tournament on the PSP and had the structure decks in real life
There is one more lv support card that wasn't mentioned in the video, silent paladin. Silent paladin was a light fairy monster that had the effect that allowed you to pull one silent swordsman/magician lv3/4 from your deck to your hand. Also it has a rly good spell negate effect
I actually learned something in this video. I thought that when a card said ignore the summoning conditions that it could revive monsters in the gy that were not properly special summoned first. I have likely done many misplays because of this.
The part about it having to be properly summoned first isn't correct atleast regarding the ocg. It was always intended to do just that. Ignore the summoning condition. However the tcg thought it would be to op. That's why you're opponent gets to draw 2 cards and the monster you summon cant attack or use its effect. Just like how the winged dragon of ra cant be special summoned. But sphere mode allows you to special summon ra ignoring the summoning conditions even though ra wasn't brought out properly in the first place.
I started to play during the LV monsters era, actually I was defeated by a Horus-Jinzo-Yata deck the first time I went to a local game shop. And decided to build that deck...today I still have those cards, along with my Monarch's deck....this video just unlocked a lot of memories.
Honestly these level cards were a really good concept with a really bad execution
The armed dragon cards were always some of my favorites which is why I was looking forward to the new versions that came out
i LOVE the lvl mechanic archetype. Its not good but for some reason it just does it for me as a mechanic in the game. I have been waiting for its "failed mechanic" video ever since I watched the one you made on gemini cards. thank you and finally! it is unfortunate how he glossed over armed dragon lv 10 and winged kuriboh lv 10 (kuriboh being a lv card i didnt even know existed in the first place) but ill just have to assume their effects were similar enough to the others that it didnt warrant mentioning... or just pause the video to read them but thats way too much work lol
I wonder if they could give the LV mechanic its own Field Spell, like Gemini. Their own "Catalyst Field"
Something that searches Any "LV" Monster on activation (or Maybe a search effect that limits it to specific LV Monsters and not every Monster that has "lv" in its name, Maybe something like how the "Number" Monsters that require a specific "Number"), and that once per turn lets You send 1 LV Monster from your Field to the GY, to special Summon a Level Monster who share name With it and it is treated as a Special Summon by its Level up effect (although I wonder how would it would help the mechanic so You Level up the proper Monster and not just Level up any Level Monster into Horus)
Although I wonder how would it be worded out?
i would make it search level up on activation, and then you can send 1 LV Monster from your hand back to your deck in order ro seach a LV monster that shares its name. and during the end phase you can add 1 level up from your graveyard to the top of your deck (or hand, it depends)
When they first came out the game was slower. Most of the level monsters effects just plain sucked. They only ones used in my area was horus, mystic and silent. And mimics occasionally for the draw effect (since back then the ban list hit and extra draw power was at a premium). With the enemy controller, snatch steal, and mind control blitz Era horus 6 and sometimes 8 were in a lot of my area decks to stop everyone taking all your monsters and beating you with them. Mystic 2 was used a lot for facedowns. And opponents often scooped once horus 8 or end level silent hit the field because their spells were all going to be negated and they couldn't play without spells (i always played to the end because my decks never relied on spells so I wasn't as crippled). They only fell out in my area once snatch, econ, and mind control were hit on the ban list in one way or another or errata and when volcanic queen and lava golem got popular. Once the "tribute your opponent's monster" monster effect came out on a number of monster cards is really what sealed the end of those level monsters. The duelist that aren't net deckers often are able to think outside the box and would probably see that they could still be used properly today. Especially with all the spell card slinging going on. Though monster effects would still be an issue.
I would like to see a synchro "LV" monster that gets an extra effect if the lower lv version is used as material.
"Rank up-syncro doesn't exist, it can't hurt you."
Rank up-syncro:
These videos make my day thank you for all this wonderful content !
Armed Dragons are my favorite of all time but I gotta agree that especially in today's meta they just aren't good enough :(
At least the Thunder variant is playable and fun. Most of LV decks need full retrains to be playable.
@@randomprofile5853 yeah true, I’m constantly trying to make the deck work, but we’ll see. Maybe they’ll get more support in future
They are also my favorite archetype have you tried using them more?
I just have fun on dueling nexus making a deck for them.
@@scrubthegod780 I actually have a really good deck. Made it myself and got to 2700 rank on nexus with it. I can send it to you if you want, I use everything when it comes to social media so whichever one you’re most comfortable with, u can give me.
I was actually very excited about the LV monsters when they first came out and wound up with various Armed Dragons and Horus cards.
I really liked the Armed Dragons and wound up getting a very viable deck built around the Armed Dragons and didn't realize that there was a Armed Dragon LV10 until years later after I stopped collecting.
Dark Mimic was fire.
Run at three copies in a value pile (typical for the day).
Easy consistency. Miss early yugioh
I can confirm that the masked knights are actually really good in red eyes decks. Use the max level as slash material, get the low level as your normal summon the next turn and soon you got multiple beaters and consistent burn.
Tea's holy guard ability is fun to use when crashing into things to activate effects. You take no damage and she's not really got that many good abilities otherwise.
I suppose Surprise Gift would see use if SHS become tier 1 LOL
I thought armed dragon lvl 7 saw play. But now I remember that was my friend in school constantly stomping me with his dragon deck
Armed Dragon LV3: I sleep
Armed Dragon LV5: I sleep
Armed Dragon LV7: I sleep
Dark Armed Dragon: REAL SHIT
This takes me back. Pretty sure this is the last YGO concept that I was around for (1st gen LV). Had nearly every card you showed.
As someone who competitively played until 2005, my favorite deck of all time was my Mystic Swordsman deck in 2004. It could have been a top tier deck if it wasn't for every deck at that time being Chaos decks.
Mystic swordsman seems like it had a pretty good effect for the time. Too bad the chaos decks were so absurdly broken (wasn't that the first time tier-0 decks started showing up?)
Yes the chaos deck was the first tier 0 deck in the game. Even after Chaos Emperor Dragon and BLS were banned, Chaos was still a top tier deck thanks to a playset of Chaos Sorcerer.
Mystic Swordman's effect at time was quite powerful and it's lv 2 monster was used a lot in sideboards and in decks with a warrior toolbox featuring Reinforcements of the Army. It was used to stop the monsters like Mystic Tomato, Shining Angel, and Apprentice Magician from triggering their 'destroyed by battle' effects and to stop Magician of Faith from using its effect
Fascinating thoughts on the Level monsters- always thought Silent Swordsman was a really cool card, but I also love your idea of Xyz Rank-Up monsters being the next "evolution" of Level cards! Makes me want to build my own Xyz archetype operating on continuous level-modding...
I can't believe you didn't mention that silent magician has hip windows
Ultimate Insect was my boss monster in yugioh tagforce 5.
Another tip for leveling up LV that needs to be in the standby phase:
Use monsters with effect like Mystic Tomato that summons the low LV monster after when it is destroyed, the opponent finished his attack and you bring out your fresh LV monster unharmed then you start your turn and it levels up.
Pretty basic stuff
PS: I only accept yugioh up to Xyz summons, pendulums and link summons are bonkers and should never have been created
It’s a real shame because I love LV monsters as a concept
I like this series of explaining game mechanics instead of constantly top tens (not that they're bad mind you), I'd say keep it up, and if you want a new idea, maybe explain or cover some archetypes that you like to explain how they are played, explain they're defining cards, and they're past and current relevancy.
Prediction for tl;dr- they're slow and most of their effects don't justify the slowness
Masked Knights were used by the Dueling Assassin Akiza faced in the first round of the Fortune Cup (Think the 5D's version of the Rare Hunters except all the ones the characters dueled were named. Unlike DM where the first one was only named Seeker in one of the spin-off games for the GBA) in the 5D's anime. And funnily enough he ALSO used Sakuretsu Armor)
I love the Horus cards and wish they got more love like the freakin blue eyes, red eyes or other popular cards
Yubel replacing itself on destruction is another way that could work better as a level up mechanic as long as the condition is open enough to allow triggering it yourself and not limiting it to one stage per turn which is probably the part that is the biggest drawback on LV monsters, if you could just upgrade the monster instantly when the condition is met instead of making the condition take a full turn of delay between forms, LV monster mechanics could easily be improved to be viable.
A strong archetype of level monsters wouldn't be hard to make viable just by making them a few useful level 4 or lower monsters with a single better level 5 or higher form each and possibly letting them summon the higher level form from the graveyard as well as the hand and deck, maybe even give them a Gusto like summon loop to make it harder to stop the higher level forms from being brought out.
Funnily enough you can use Level Down on Winged Kuriboh LV10 to Special Summon Winged Kuriboh LV9
Everyone remembers Dark Armed Dragon, but no one remembers Dark Horus when talking about L V monsters :'(
Just note, I did know of Dark Horus, I just didn't talk about it because it never saw competitive play lol
Dark Horus was pretty bad, honestly. You had to get your opponent to resolve a spell card effect, and it only let you special summon level 4 dark monsters exclusively, so it could've easily had plenty more viable targets if they didn't limit them to just a certain level
oh now I get why the XYZ mechanic was created. This videos helps understanding the design decisions. Also, Silent archetype is a pay to win deck in Duel Links to this day. You cannot obtain the structure deck with gems at all.
Man that LV4 horus artwork has always been one of my favorites
Still think Thunder Armed Dragons should've been given a TCG renaming to Chazzed Armed Dragons. Referencing Chazz's DL KO line "You've been Chazzed"
I always though Armed Dragon Thunder and its evolution is a hell of a problem, yet this video proves that there are way harder options.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Silent Paladin, which works with Silent Swordsman and Silent Magician, despite being worse support.
Nor Silent Burning, which is the spell for Magician that came out together with Silent Sword Slash
i was surprised when he didn't mention them.
It was funny for me.
I got to the part about masked knight being dual links exclusive and my brain saw the artwork for the first one and immediately said “masked knight level the 3rd”. Probably the only thing from that anime tournament that stuck in my mind.
Why does all my favorite cards use failed mechanics?
I remember everyone and their mother run Horus Dragon Lv. 8 + Royal Decree back then... it's a easy way to lock down 2/3 of your opponent deck and rather difficult to recover from.
.... still play horus lv8 to this day, i just love that damn card .... and when i heard they made a horus archtypedeck i was hopeful, but my god where my hopes shattered ...
imo what they could do is create a continuous card or fieldcard to either search lvl up! from the deck or get it back from the graveyard whenever a lv monster has been summoned
or a recoverycard where if you had 2 lv monsters in the grave/banished you put 1 back into the deck and one on your hand ...
OR they create a retrain of lv up! where you can banish a lower lv monster from the hand or grave to summon the next lv monster from the deck or grave ...
I've been waiting for this video!!!
I ran Horus and Armed Dragons back in the day. I have so much love for them that I prefer them to XYZ.
Blame that Horus was a FIRE attribute Dragon, which made me want it.
How to make them broken? Make them float into the lower LV version after being removed from field by battle or opponent's card effect, maybe?
Well you just randomly clarified for me why my Cyber Eternal wasn't working when playing online. Thanks XD
Field spell card with once per turn distraction protection and allows you special summon the boss monster to prevent bricking and treated like it was summoned normally or thunder arm dragon effect
I remember using armord dragon in all the GBA games, each time i play one my first goal to get three of each, i beat the game with them
Always love your vids hiru💪💯. I swear I can watch your all your videos from WoW to Yugioh 😭. Just love your content man keep up the amazing work👏. Even if it feels like I'm not watching I'm watching aleast one of your various widespread of vids you got bro👌.
I got regional success with Silent Magician LV 4 in a control Spellcaster deck. The meta was Bottomless Trap hole so it always entered the field. I used Secret Village of Spellcasters and Royal Decree to lock the opponents and Silent Magician was there to gather Spell Counters for Arcane Magician or Magical Exemplar, but people were always afraid of it leveling up so they either targeted or prepared for the LV 8. The great thing was that LV 8 wasn't even in the deck, so it worked as a great bluffing tool. LV 4 with spell counter was way more useful for the deck than LV 8. It was my favorite meta ever, I had great success with it and still have the deck as a token of my childhood.
@10:56 So guys, what exactly is the difference between Level Up! and Level Modulation when we talk about "ignoring the summoning conditions"?
I remember having an insect deck, where I managed to get Ultimate Insect LV7,while having Solidarity and Burden of the Mighty on the field. It's so satisfying making it destroy monsters who supposed to have high attacks lol.
Great Video Mr. Logs.
Great vid DuelLogs, I really like the Horus cards.
Surprised armed dragon lv 5 didn't see competitive play as a one tribute high atk monster that could pop cards
@TheDuelLog: the reason horus the black flame dragon lv6 can still be send as cost by level up spell card to special summoned its level 8 version from hand or deck with ignore summoning condition, despite being unaffected by spell card, it is because it is cost, cost is not an effect, or a requirement is not consider an effect neither.
9:00
You forget to mention that _spell counters_ themselves recieved their own archetype when this came out. It still doesn't make the card amazing by any means, but there is like, 3 monsters that do spell counter shenanigans in removing or distributing them for effects, a weird trap card lodestone thing that can add more, and then there is mystical library of course, which lets you draw for counters.
I played that deck on the kitchen table and at school back in the day, and it wasn't like, unplayable or anything. Actually was fairly decent. Days were thin back in the then, and spell caster support was readily enough available to 14 year old me before the days of plentiful LGS's and online card markets.
when I was a kid, I used a lot of allowance money on the booster pack with the first wave of Lv cards. I really wanted to get Horus cards, but I never got them 😢
I used to run the Horus line with shrink and Jinjo as the LVL 6 Horus wasn't as a bad top deck and the risk of bricking into lvl 8 was worth taking because of its effect.
I know the facts are facts, just Armed Dragon Thunder is my favorite archetype. It got me back into the TCG
I ran a silent magician deck in duel links to quite a bit of success when I was new to the game. Getting a 3500 beatstick on the field in potentially just a couple of turns was pretty good for duel links back then
I got video idea:-
Top ten cards spell or trap or monster that you have to shuffle your deck after using its effect. You could mini-series on that topic, sure alot of cards say shuffle your deck in the text.
also suggestion:-
Top worst cards spells or monster or traps that makes you shuffle your deck part of the effect.
Been really enjoying these "failed card mechanic" videos. Neat to look back on things like this.