Hey everyone, thank you for watching the video! I really appreciate all the support the video has had so far. This was my most ambitious video ever and I am happy to report I want to make more videos like this in my future! After the vote on 6/27, you guys decided on Vaylantz for the next video! See you guys then! Additional note; If any Yu-Gi-Tubers are interested in reacting to the video I happily say please do! I would love to hear their insight!
You’re a brave man for making this video. Branded is probably the most popular deck outside of anime related stuff. People will always go for bat for Branded and say it’s just “okay” lol.
I would argue that Sky Strikers are more popular considering there is a whole manga centered around the archetype right now plus more merch with them headlining.
While I agree Branded Fusion is a powerful card on it's own, the entire deck surrounding it is fair enough that it's not a huge issue. Even with the Puppet Lock existing (Sanctifire needs to get hit), the deck has consistently hovered around low Tier 1 in the grand scheme of the meta. I will go to bat for it, but I'm not delusional enough to think the deck is just "okay". It's a great deck. I'm just of a mind that a deck being good isn't grounds for hate. A deck being so broken and unfair to play against that it centralizes the entire meta around it would warrant hate, but Branded is not that. It's a very consistent deck with a lot of flexibility in any given moment, and good follow-up, but the power ceiling isn't so high that other Tier 1-2 decks can't go toe to toe with it.
I like how we're deep in Snake Eyes era (with the deck not being meaningfully hit) about to enter Fiendsmith era, but everyone cries to have a Structure Deck based deck hit (even going beyond addressing Puppetlock)
@@Aaronfails I know, if it was up to me, Flamberge and sangen summoning would see the ban hammer, together with Sanctifier and Calamity. The thing is, should snake-eyes and Tenpai get hit like that, Branded will be the best deck in the format and it's not exactly the newest deck, so it would propably have to be hit during the next banlist anyways. Personaly with fiendsmith right around the corner, I think banning Sanctifier is enaught (but still nessesery). I just can see where people who want more of branded hit are coming from
@@sirdragoner3446 You know, I'm actually not sure about that. I think branded is only as good as it is right now because deck building has to be centralized around Snake Eyes. If snake eyes were to be hit, other decks would rise to fill that gap since it wouldn't be pushing them out of the meta, and if branded were to rise to the top among those decks, deck building and side boards would start accounting for it, and the deck would perform much, much worse. Branded has always been a very meta dependent deck - it does very well when it's under the radar, but as soon as people start respecting it while deck building, it tends to get bopped. Imo, anyways.
I have been having zero issues with Branded... _But,_ that's purely because I stripped down my maindeck engine to like, 15 cards, added two Crossouts and 2 Thrust/1 Talents, and filled in the rest with 19 handtraps. I have effectively made Handtrap OTK to deal with things like Snake Eyes. The fact this type of deck building is now commonplace and _necessary_ and has pushed out decks like Branded doesn't mean Branded is weak, it just means the current format has managed to become more cancerous than Branded is.
@@Spikezillian_ I personally don't really like it. The way my deck is built and plays now makes it feel like it has lost its identity. And there aren't a lot of decks who have the luxury of stripping down like what I did. It's the Ash Blossom problem all over again, but 10x worse, where a ton of past decks get cut out because of modern design philosophy, and not because of any fault of their own.
@@Spikezillian_ I really don't like how the game has evolved to the point where you need to play a 1 card combo that gives you 8 points of interaction plus follow up and you gotta play 3 crossout and 20 handtraps on the main deck. A branded fusion does not generate half of the advantage that a diabellstar does without even the wanted draw. at least with stuff like invoked dogmatika you only got a negate and a monster pop in addition to the handtraps, but the deck by no means could just otk you using one card, which is sadly not the case with snake eyes.
@@OlgaZuccati I don't think it's quite as black and white as amount of bodies or breaking limits of a one card combo. I think the difference between a good deck and a rogue deck in 2024 still comes down to a few factors. I actually might make a video on the topic. I'm going to summarize so keep in mind this is off the cuff (right after work as well) but think about this: 1. Does my deck need to normal summon? 2. Does my deck have multiple monsters in the archetype that can special summon themselves? (Not special summon others, though it is strongly noted) 3. What presence does my deck have on the field vs in the hand, GY, Banished, etc? (This is notable for Veiler and Imperm, but beyond that as well) 4. How big is the engine? 5. What amount of back row is required and what kind of back row is it? (Quick spell, trap, normal spells only? Do they have a good field spell?) 6. Can my deck avoid hand traps or have multiple candidates that are all answered by one hand trap? (Ash? Droll? Ghost Ogre? Shifter?) These kinds of questions are exactly why decks such as Tearlaments were so strong in a format where Shifter was still an option. It was also a deck immediately following Branded Despia, Floo, Eldlich, Swordsoul. Which of these 4 decks is still relevant and topping regionals/nationals today? Regardless I do think Snake Eyes is better, but it's not about being better here, what matters is if the deck is good enough where hits are still a possibility, not a probability. Thank you for your comment
All of these interactions are pretty much why I like Branded. You can interact with your opponent without spilling out a bunch of banworthy cards that only say "negate" on them all the time and it would still be a pretty competent. Winda and Sanctifier aside, its just fun to play with and against. Is it over tuned? Yeah. Though, sadly it just gets less heat because other decks are just better.
Half of the deck deserves to be on the list in some capacity for being “insert historically really good card with ATK/DEF” or “Another copy of a really good cars in your deck with ATK/DEF”. Interacting with a built Branded board is a nightmare for anything that isn’t so unfun it’s boring to run test hands after doing the same 7 minute combo 15 times. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been forced to scoop because of Cartesia, Branded in Red, and an Albaz special on my own turn. Only time Branded isn’t toxic is when the pilot sucks and doesn’t know what they’re doing. It’s disgusting that Branded is considered “fine” because of what’s occupying Tier 0.
@@WolfPackAlpha-sn2swBro is afraid of Albaz summon on his turn. You're probably playing a mid deck then. There's plenty of good decks that can break through Branded boards without puppet. Puppet is literally the only thing holding Branded as high as it is in the meta. If that lock gets banned Branded instantly loses half its playerbase and goes down a tier for sure.
Unironically, thank you for teaching me how to play Branded well. These cards can do so much, and it feels like I just suck with them. I didn't even think of using Voiceless voice in Branded.
I have been playing Branded for a while an do fairly well with it, every now and then though I will get clobbered by another Branded duelist with combos I haven't thought of yet.
You are right that branded fusion is cracked card. Its a foolish for a light and dark and then lets you with basically fusion summon any fusion you want. But.... it doesn't get that much hate because there are more broken decks.
Whenever I wanna complain about a card like BF, I remember sangen summoning & the gimmick puppet fields... we have field spells that search, make their archetype uninteractable AND have other utilities (puppet one also helps SS for le ftk). I dunno what to call "broken" or "cracked" these days.
@@boraaksitozgun9912 most of the meta is broken. Right now people are just throwing hand traps at each other and the first one to resolve a starter wins
I understand your reasoning, but branded is actually not as oppressive as you make it out to be in this video. There is a famous saying among the competitve scene if you respect branded as an archetype its easy to beat. Branded as a archetype is probably one of the most technical archetypes in the game. Literally requiring a huge amount of skill to pilot especially in this stage of the current meta. There is a reason only a small number of them make it to the top cut at major events. Its a deck that is the opitome of skill expression. Even at full power you have to the deck precisely or you will get literally fucked from a to z. I would say branded is one the most "fair" modern archetypes to exist in Yugioh after a long time.
As someone who uses branded. The reason people think this deck isn’t a big deal is most branded players play completely braindead. This deck is a power house even with most of their cards being limited to 1. Deck is extremely powerful and needs more hits tbh.
I agree for the power, but I don't agree with the hits. The only things that should be banned are Sanctire and Gimmick Puppet Nightmare. The rest is all okay.
Branded/despia is basically a featherweight champion boxer, but its constantly fighting outside its weight class against middle and heavyweight boxers. So in other words branded despia is only OP if all the other power gouses didn't exist.
Im 95% sure that the reason that people think branded is bad is because the players are on average not that great In master duel i tend to beat Branded decks with such powerhouses as: Cyber Dragon, Dragon Maid, Suship, Blue Eyes, and B.E.S. That fusion is kinda insane and my experiences against good players with Branded, Tear, and Chimera have me start to fight back with my own overpowered Fusion card (Chimeratech) out of pure frustration.
Branded is easy to understand and welcoming to new players. The average newcomer chooses "Power of the Dragon", search for Dragon cards and say wow! there are a lot of Branded dragons, ill play that The same goes for old players returning to the game
I don't think branded is a problem if we remove sanctifier shenanigans tbh, the combos are not linear and use a lot of your resources, it's very fun to play with and against in my opinion, of course this is only mine tho
Branded Fusion gets Ashed. Proceed to take 30min turn to end on Masquerade, Dragoon, and Mirrorjade. Why is being non-linear relevant? The fact it's non-linear is why the deck needs a ban. Every card you look at in a Branded hand, is a potential starter. That's not healthy for the game.
@@monkeybench no one uses dragoon, especially in the tcg. if branded fusion gets ashed, there is almost nothing you can do, except if you have hard drawn extenders (which most are normal summons, quem, aluber, cartesia if you dont have access to albaz)
@@monkeybenchbranded is healthier then most decks, as unlike the current decks being 50% deck, 50% hand traps, it’s has to be roughly 80% gas. It limits the available interaction they have outside of mirrorjade and the preda fusion.
I dont think anything you talked about outside of the puppet lock os a real criticism. Branded Fusion is a very strong card but the curent deck doesnt really need to resolve fusion to win. This is the only viable fusion locked deck and outside of the puppet is completely fair and very interactive
It's pretty balanced too. Every other deck doesn't have much restrictions and run toxic boards. Branded cant even abuse the fiendsmith engine like everyone either
I typically find videos that are more than just complaining about a certain topic and actually goes into explaining the why pretty interesting. Which is why I went into this video with an open mind to genuinely see and understand some of the points you make. However, there's just plenty of incorrect points in this video that kinda irk me and id like to shed some light on em. A lot of the complaints don't exactly feel like complaints but instead "Well this deck has a lot of strong cards, so that means the deck must be hit somehow". I do wanna say that I still enjoyed the editing of the video and how it was structured. My goal in most of this isn't to come out at you and lash about why youre shitting on the deck or something, but more so to explain some things and why I dont think they exactly hold up. I feel like discussion is both very important and very fun in such topics. I don't know how long this will get so sorry in advance since I assume it will be pretty long and potentially tiresome. I just find it an interesting topic to talk about so expect a lot of things buuut TL;DR: Albion is absolutely a card that should be 100% removed from the game as it's one of the most toxic things about this current metagame. Some of the things you mentioned would be actually justifiable or even valid at the time when the structure was released. It's been over 2 years at this point, and a lot of those points either aren't true or just don't hold up. I understand that some of the cards read kinda like crazy, but the game has changed to where that's just not the case anymore since there's just a lot more power into the current game. And if you think that it's insane how such a powerful deck is somehow not the powerhouse it ought to be, that's more so a criticism with how fast the game evolves rather than a branded issue. The deck is extremely powerful still, but the unfortunate reality is that in the current format, the deck performs mostly because it can auto win via sanctifire. Ban that and the deck just becomes completely fine in the current format. Maybe you have bad experience with it in locals or md or whatever, but on the topic of MD, the reason why it's so nerfed in both ocg and md is because of how well it plays into maxx c, not because it has too powerful cards or what not. As for the video itself: A lot of the points I will make won't go over the puppet lock because a) I 100% agree that everything revolving the lock is unfair and should not exist b) there was little emphasis to the lock in the video anyways. In general there's just some weird points that aren't really true. Like for example comparing mathmech circular and branded fusion. Not only is branded fusion not a true 1 card combo since it needs a discard + you need a dark for the better version of the combo (you rarely will not have access to a dark but it does come up and it's important to know). Comparing both the end board as well as how resilient the two combos are gives pretty clear insight as to why circular is a very stupid card while branded fusion albeit very powerful isn't as stupid. I don't know if I think circular should be banned still but it's clear that one is more powerful than the other for a multitude of reasons that id happily explain but currently isn't particularly important. Chapter 1: I understand that fusion summoning any level 8 or higher is still extremely potent, but not only is it not entirely generic which is still important that there are limitations (as well as branded fusion actually locking you into things compared to something like ostinato), you also cannot directly summon into what you want. Going first that's not particularly important but going second it can definitely come up, that you need to play around specific floodgates or interactions, and being limited to just albaz fusions can be tough. Which funnily enough banning sanctifire even helps with that, which if you need something over 2500 atk, your only option is titaniklad except if had a fusion already on board to make mirrorjade for example. Small thing but important nonetheless. As for the verte thing, people didn't exploit verte that much with branded. It did happen but most of them prefer going for dpe because fusion destiny isn't a bad draw in non fusion decks, while branded fusion is very awkward to draw in a non fusion deck. There are ofc pros and cons for both packages but brafu is definitely not a strictly better one and is potentially not as splashable At some point you also make an argument about lines that go under nibiru, but only are these lines not as good, to actually make good boards under 4 summons you need like a 3 card combo or something which seems completely fair to me. For example, you had mirrorjade cartesia, bystial lubellion and in red as the 4 summon endboard, which not only is this at minimum a 2 card combo + discard, to actually have this board under 4 summons you need a 3 card combo + discard. Please do correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see a line that can actually make this endboard and both need less cards and not play into nib,and ofc without doing something like mirrorjade banish your own monster to get the send in the gy. Chapter 2: Making dragoon + extra stuff needs a decent amount of resources typically, except if you can open very specific hands, where at that point you're losing out on other things. While you can ofc pop off and have just utterly bonker endboards with also dragoon on board, most of the time you have to sacrifice either follow up or lose on your ability to set up variable boards. Which in recent years, that's arguably more important than an omni, which is one of the reasons why people don't typically play Dragoon anymore (among others). Tear Branded is a pretty interesting and fun variant but nowhere near pure tear ishizu in terms of power. Which if anything that's a good thing, how you can mix and match branded cards to make interesting strategies but they don't break anything. Cont. in the comment below!
For some reason posting this comment is getting me an error (maybe the size of the text?) so i'll continue the rest of my thoughts in this reply. Chapter 3: I don't exactly understand why an archetype having a lot of cards is bad. Especially because we have a decent amount of archetypes with a lot of cards in a small span of time. Gladiator beasts for example got around 40 from 2007 to 2011 and other lore heavy archetypes like tellar also got around 50 cards in the span of 3-4 years. There are ofc a lot of really good cards around the branded archetype, but it's the same with the world legacy decks and to a similar extent the visas decks (but I believe not as much). In this chapter in general there are a lot either weird or incorrect points. Like for example mirrorjade outing noir which, while technically true, you'd need to either crash into said noir, which would mean your opponent has their noir in atk for some reason or they'd have to remove it themselves, which noir already has the option to shuffle back mirrorjade if it does try to threaten anything. Branded in red possibly being the second generic quick play spell is kinda neat actually! (or well, almost generic but I'll give it to you). It's especially interesting because ever since then, we've gotten some generic quick play fusion spells like chimera fusion, mementotlan fusion and naturia blessing, which have the ability to summon anything but with typically some restriction on the materials. Granguignol absolutely gets summoned way more than just often. It's so important in fact that some even play two of em. And because you kinda mentioned it in conjunction with sanctifire, you very typically go into granguignol to perform the lock, but even without they it's extremely useful. Aluber's gy effect realistically very rarely comes up. It can be annoying true, but there's just too many times where you'll banish him off with albion to fusion summon. Lost is a very good card but you can always just pop it instead of just negating it or something. Decks still have that kind of interaction after all, and even meta ones like fire king, lab or salad. Also backrow removal is played a loooot. One of the most common side cards is cosmic followed by harpies. The thing about mercourier is also kinda weird. How he's a tri brigade card that's abused by branded. Not only is he not really abused because a majority of its uses are quite interesting, it fits a lot with the lore and that's pretty neat. Technically it's a tri brigade card but mercourier is most typically seen with albaz (even though shuraig also has em). Which is why the effect is most relevant for branded but you technically could use it in tri brigade (although admittedly it's nowhere near as good and mostly would be for the spice rather than an actually good option). I think this is quite long at this point so I'll just speed up through the rest. Theater is not used anymore at all and in white is definitely not the least used fusion spell. High spirits is very good ofc but isn't as cookie cutter. It's typically way better going first than second, similar to nadir as you mentioned. Regained is also a good card but not used in branded really because most of the time you prefer lost anyways. Beast is kinda similar but it's used even less. Both suffer from the fact that you play so few bystials so you just don't get as much advantage, especially beast. Dramaturge also isn't really used at all, and is also kinda odd to go over especially when you have cards like banishment that actually are used, which kinda goes to the final point and the end of this huge thing (I'm sorry for how long it has gotten). Before that though, you didn't really mention retribution much, which is kinda fair because it's on field effect isn't used as much it's still a critical card on the strategy. Overall my main issue with everything excluding points where I feel you have have misconceptions about the deck, is that a lot of those arguments are things that were true 2 years ago. Brafu in 2022 was incredibly strong. Now it's still strong, but it doesn't keep up as much. That's because mirrorjade isn't as oppressive, because a lot of decks don't suffer to out it. I understand that plenty of rogue decks can struggle against branded's sheer power, but that's just a lot of meta decks currently for the better or for the worse. If anything, throughout the years branded has become so much more interesting, because when the structure deck released it kinda was either mirrorjade turbo or double masq turbo with rhe option to summon either chimera or dragostapelia on the opponents turn. Which most of the time you just tried to resolve brafu and go from there. The deck has massively evolved from that, and isn't reliant on just brafu to do anything, making the deck not feel like you either fuck them up with ash or you don't, making it inherently just a more fun matchup. Not only that, it's one of the most interactive decks in the format, and in general has a lot of room for experimentation via its plays, deckbuilding etc. Id love to hear more opinions and views about this whole topic because I feel like branded is one of those decks that people just play against the most insufferable people ever and get huge misconceptions about the deck. Just ban sanctifire really. Screw the puppet lock in general. Oh and last thing because I almost forgot, chapter 4: Voiceless and chimera don't really play Brafu. Most voiceless lists don't even play it, preferring to go pure. As for chimera, it does actually play brafu a lot, but mostly as a starter to go into the chimera plays rather than the branded portion. There's a huge likelihood that people will prefer playing the fiendsmith cards over brafu (Maybe not immediately but most likely after closed moon releases) but I don't know enough to say.
*Ostinato:* wanna hear a joke? Branded fusion: yes. *Ostinato:* Not restricted to only fusion summon, and not once per turn effect Branded fusion: I don't get it *Ostinato:* Exactly
@@dhiaajalloul7218 Bro why tf can I get an omni negate and 3 Apollousa negates off an engine without using my normal summon. 😭😭😭😭 And the fact that you also have the option to make any rank 4 like infernal flame banshee to search poplar or snake eye ash is even worse
seriously, 1 ostinato gets you wayyy more than 1 branded fusion can ever get you on its own. branded fusion combined with other 2 or 3 card combos can get you a crazy endboard yes. but on its own its literally what, mirrorjade pass like what
@@Aaronfails some decks can use it as an actual engine piece like chimera, but that's pretty rare... ostinato having no summon lock of any kinda and generating 4 negates AND giving you a free pendulum scale which some people forget just means you get a free special summon in any deck is pretty dumb... It already has ways to just give you a snake eye combo and in chimera they can just search polymerization as part of the engine too if you play tam tam. Wouldn't be surprised if it had direct ways of giving combos to other archetypes too...
Your description of Branded Fusion describes every deck tough. Yes, resolving your main starter leads to strong endboards... However, Branded is one of the few decks that actually utilizes your whole hand for the combos. It is not linear and the endboard is breakable (as soon as we ban sanctifier). You are also not able to run 12+ handtraps and it is very difficult to play. That is why playing with or against branded is always fun, if you have 2 competent players.
I swear the deck is extremely fun to play with once you get the hang of it. Puppet is annoying and should be banned but so are all floodgates if you ask me.
This exactly. Every point against Branded Fusion can be made against Snake-Eye Ash or OSS. Branded is in fact even more interactive because, like you said, they can run almost no non-engine
Why should they ban Sanctfire Albion? Because of Gimmick Puppet Nightmare’s effect? If people have a problem with that combo then ban Nightmare, I don’t see why Sanctfire needs to be banned.
Making a second comment to address some mistakes and/or add additional context. Branded opening doesn't Discard for Cost, it does for effect (even better lol) it triggers Tragedy or a tear name... Or whatever really. Branded in High Spirits is a hard once per turn and 1 effect per turn, so it doesn't recycle from its own effect. Granguignoll can summon way more than you think too. Despian Luluwalilith, a level 12 Synchro, is also a despia in your Extra Deck. And so is Proskenion. Both of which are pretty good targets as well, though Luluwa and Queritis are the best.... In the extra deck. It can also summon a Dogmatika from Main Deck, like Ecclesia, Quem or Maximus.
Thank you for these notes! A friend of mine also noticed the Branded Opening mistake I made after I uploaded. Pretty wild that it isnt for cost LOL. Granguignol goes crazy!
Other thing that makes Expulsion so more broken is that you can't even respond it with conventional interruptions like Called or Belle if both targets are banished, while Sanctifire is way easier to deal with as long as you have GY interruption.
This is crazy! Branded needs to be hit, but all of these other decks are running wild! Snake Eye, Tenpai, pure Voiceless Voice. Did you not see Branded vs Rika Plant match in a recent championship??? People will say he use the puppet lock in both of his matches, but did you see the board that Jess made in the second match?? If Jess made that board in the first match there’s no way he could’ve beat that. Branded is great, but so are a lot of other decks.
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great video. I 100% agree with everything you've said. Branded for the past 2 years has been top tier. It's always been so annoying playing against them bc they NEVER run out of steam. The deck is super consistent. They are always able to somehow recycle their resources over and over again. It's a completely broken deck and im glad you brought attention to it
Compared to Horus, which do the same but better, Salamangreat which do the same but better, Fire-king, snake-eye..... Yeah Branded is only annoying because people are getting the taste of their own medicine
that's literally every deck from 2020 to now. all the main decks from toss format had pretty much infinite recursion, branded's main competition in form of swordsoul could also loop resources effectively infinitely and also they put you in a clock by looping longyuan. it's really weird that people are singling branded out for this specifically. that's just how the game is played nowadays. it's like complaining that a deck doesn't auto loses to nibiru when that has been a thing that konami does since nib has been released in the tcg.
-verte was banned mostly because of dragoon and dpe, not mirrorjade. -branded tearlaments is a meme, and pure was better even before ishizus. -granguignol is realistically summoned every turn 1, no idea why you say this card isn't summoned much. -chimera branded is strictly worse then branded, and most VV decks don't play branded fusion -most one card branded fusion combos don't make good boards. Mirrorjade pass is not real. Most branded boards are 2-3 card combos
I think the comparison between branded fusion and shaddoll fusion is very dumb due to the reasons you mentioned and the fact that it makes people not see what old card branded fusion really compares to that being brilliant fusion
Brilliant Fusion is a fusion spell truly like no other. Very scary. Some others in the comments have mentioned Ostinato as well. Thank you for your comment!
It made me realize, as a Branded player, even if they were to ban or limit Branded Fusion in the TCG, we still will ended up with other busted cards to put in our decks, even non-branded cards like Chimera. And considering Branded is one of Konami’s cash cow archetypes, I sense they’re gonna bring this back with new sets that could be more broken.
This was why I wanted to break down all the Branded options rather than the main subjects! Thank you for taking the time to enjoy the video and thank you for the comment.
You wanna test how good your opponent can pilot branded? Just ash the fusion. Most of the time, they spit out a few monsters and thats it... But my lord, if you go against a skillful branded player? They got a plan B, C, and D ready that hold their board.
The fact branded is one of the few meta relevant decks that let your opponent actually activate cards and not negate them, is why i love this deck. If sanctifire gets banned i wouldn't even care, in MD the only reason i started to play with sanctifire was because of tenpai release, otherwise i like the interactions and multiple lines you can do or have to do after being handtrapped a bunch of times for the best board possible. The only reason i didn't like tear as a deck was because there wasn't a similar restriction to it like branded, but instead they could all kind of summonings which gave flexibilty to the deck, especially with the ishizu cards. Decks like branded are more needed, they don't use to many handtraps, they rely mostly to play around handtraps by have multiple lines/options.
It can top, but the only reason it's up there close to the top decks right now is because of the Puppet lock. Branded has some cracked cards to enable fusion plays without spending the proper resources, because fusion summoning is inherently more resource intensive and net negative than synchro, XYZ, and link. Only ritual is worse (and needs stronger crack to function). Remove Puppet lock and it's fine. Ideally, errata Albion to negate the effect of monsters you summon to your opponent's side of the field
@@supersaiyan7315 Correct. And it was pretty crazy timing seeing as I originally scripted this video in April of 2024 beta.yugiohmeta.com/top-decks/uk-national-championship-2024/branded-despia/rob-e./-xCF5
This definitely gave me a lot to think about as a Branded lover since the structure deck came out, even more so once I could afford Cartesia, Quem, and Bystial Lubellion. Some of your criticisms are entirely fair, most notably puppet lock (obviously) and Branded Lost (stupid fucking card). BUT! The amount of time I found myself pausing the video to correct you is a little staggering (I’m sure you’ve heard these corrections from some people but in case not): “Opening discards for cost.” No it doesn’t, there’s no semi-colon. “High Spirits triggers itself.” No it doesn’t, you only get 1 effect of it per turn. Etc. etc. I’m sure you’ve heard all these thing that are effectively “minor spelling mistake.” At the same time, there’s some other points you made that come down more to opinion and preference considering, yeah, Branded can do whatever the hell it wants (which I personally value, I think that’s cool the # of different ways to build it, but that’s a different point). “You can use it to make Dragoon!” We haven’t been widely making Dragoon since like Kash format, maybe. It requires a brick in the deck with already too much engine and Mirrorjade provides much more long term value than a single Omni that discards. Like, we established Dragoon wasn’t good when DPE released pre-Verte ban. Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever watched Branded make Winda. Not to say it doesn’t happen, and I’m sure it can (and thinking about it I don’t see why it doesn’t happen, actually), but still. “Dragostapelia is good because Branded in Red makes it with Albion branded on field.” Uhhhhhhh if you’re leaving Albion branded on field to banish it, then that’s just wrong, right? You’re trying to tribute it for Bystial Lubellion to get lost on field (which is arguably more broken). Including Regained and Beast in the relevant cards section? Yes, we did play that in the past, and you were definitely right to include them alongside cards like Dramaturge and Ad Lib, but we haven’t played either of those since like, I dunno, AGOV format. “Theater is the best fusion spell outside of Branded Fusion and would probably be played if Branded Fusion was ever gone.” Uhhhh, this is just something I personally disagree with (because we can’t know unless BF does get the axe). It only fuses from hand or field, which is something that Cartesia, Red, and White can all do already (and don’t die to MST), and that second effect doesn’t matter in the slightest. 9 times out of 10 I’ve banished the Aluber (or at least it *should* be banished) off of Albion branded to make fusion Lubellion. “Branded is played in Chimera!” Uhhh, not anymore. Last I checked that deck pivoted to Chimera illusion after PHNI with the release of Nightmare Apprentice and Diabellze opening up Beatrice lines, among other things. The VV point is completely valid, tho. I just don’t find that deck particular oppressive when I go against it with Branded (which, I guess, is easy for me to say as I main deck Bystials, Lights + Darks, Thrust + Talents, etc.) Also! Another point in favor of Branded’s annoyance is that BF is an “activate once per turn,” so if you Skull Guardian negate it and I add it back with Retribution, I can fire it again. Side note, you did forget a bunch of playable branded cards in the discussion, but I’m sure you did that to save in time, realistically (like cutting Luluwalilith, Super Poly + Mudragon and Garura, Alba-Lenatus, Titaniklad, Rindbrumm, Borreload Furious, etc.) Anyway, typing all this out makes me realize how some of even these point are just effectively “minor spelling mistake” but they do also negate (pun not intended) some of your frustrations. (Ofc I say that w/o knowing your specific personal experience). “Oh we make Dragoon? But it’s not good! Oh Theater is good, too! But it really isn’t. High spirits is broken because it triggers itself! But that’s not how the card works.” I’m sure you did your research (I mean, you clearly did, don’t get me wrong), but messing up the nuances made this sort of a frustrating watch. But on the larger points of Branded being basically unrestricted are entirely valid, we can just disagree on whether or not that’s a bad thing (creative play style and deck building outside of puppet lock vs. game balancing) Also, idk WHO tf is saying “At least it’s not Shaddoll fusion” but they are a psychopath and deserve no rights because that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, for every reason you outlined (not that I’ve EVER heard someone say that before this video). Anyway, sorry, I know this is very long and I’m sure you have better things to do than read this entire middle school essay. Just needed to voice some things. I have no hard feelings against you and I hope you know that I do not intended on this coming across hostile or as a hate comment. Have a good day!
@@unamusedwaffle Very constructive and well written. You are correct I did notice these mistakes after the video was uploaded, my friends who watched the video beforehand did not notice these mistakes. Thank you for the corrections. I think the Dragoon Winda Dragostapelia section was heavily based on my experience facing them. Especially since I've been facing Branded since Branded Fusion was released and I have most certainly seen these options even up until just last Friday I saw someone do the Winda under Schism thing I mentioned in the video. Thank you for your comment. You have a great day as well!
@@Spikezillian_ I know my comment was super simple and doesn't communicate what I meant effectively, in a more constructive form. Konami has a problem with power creeping yugioh, it's why we keep having tier 0 after tier 0 format, they're hitting a breaking point where power creep is progressing so fast the games becoming unplayable
@@NixiShavalMusic Once again I fully agree, and I meant to present that message to the audience in the video at the start of Chapter 4 ( 24:40 ) where I mention how insane POTE was as a base set. Thank you for your in-depth response!
@@Spikezillian_ Pog, I was worried you were subtly snapping back at me for giving a shitty response haha, I do agree that this game has a lot of problems at the current time
And then there's Etude of the Branded, which Synchro Summons on the opponent's turn, *DODGING THE ONLY DOWNSIDE OF BRANDED FUSION* and making it possible to _Calamity Lock without Crimson Dragon._ 🐉
In my view, Branded is one of most balanced Deck rn. Branded isn't the problem and dosn't deserve hits, it's the Gimmick Puppet lock the problem. At least you can completly shut down Branded plays with one or two card, not like Snake Eye or others, they can't play 12 Handtraps and had restricted Extra Deck and you need to discard to resolve (some Meta decks dosn't have resolving cost). Yes Branded is strong, like any other Deck with good pilots, but clearly not with this Deck that Konami goes too far. I really like how Branded Deck is Balanced, need more archtype like that, not overly powerful, just good.
There are other problem cards Sanctifire can spam with effects like GPN. The problem is Sanctifire being able to summon any 2 monsters. If you ban GPN Sanctifire can still summon any number of bs, the barrier statues come to mind but there are plenty of others that are worse to have on your field (read "better on your opponent's field for the branded player"). Ban Santifire, ban BF, ban the red Albion just to be safe.
@@owo2312 I agree with banning Sanctifire, but your reasoning needs a LOT of work lmao. Learn how the card works and what the problematic interactions actually are before commenting.
@@owo2312then state all of them and let every single person correct you on that so you can go mad about it. Don't forget to get mad at this comment as well
"Massive monsters made long before nibiru can out them." Didnt know we were struggling out here against 2500 beat sticks. Also... why are we bringing up Dragoon? Noone that plays branded is playing it. Its not good.
i get your point, i get people who dont like it... but i love it, its cheap and it doesnt need spreadsheets and 100+ hours of lab to work. so i play it. also, ban sanctifire or puppet, i want to play the fun version
Imagine having a card that's pretty much searchable 1 sided dimension fissure, that allow you to synchro summon on enemy turn, and it's not even worth playing (im still playing it xd)
Great video Spikezillian!! Love the format, visuals, music choice, and THAT VOICE!!! 😍❤️ Gotta make more of these, cant wait for the next one!! SUBSCRIBED!! 🔥🔥🔥
have to say good edited video but what confuses me is the hate for dragoon. dont get me wrong the card is good in a vaccuum but first off how do you go into it in branded: eiter throuh Lubellion or albion(the fusions) and eiter one has ups and downs but both leave you as the player without mirrrorjade. in addition to that dragoon looses hard to ty-phon. one funny trivia is that melodious fusion spell in a vaccuum is so much better than brandeds. the thing i agree the most with is that albion the sanctifire dragon should be removed from the game because that card is toxic as hell and lastly i say the branded fusion lock to only fusion is one of the locks i like the most in reccend memory because it allowes to splash the deck to some extend but limits you from staples like s.p. or ty-phon. it also makes the deck weak to cards like d-barrier and you have a couple of effective counters to the deck.
Mind you, people can make Dark Dragoon turn 2 using Branded in Red if they wanted to, they just won't with Sanctifire in existence. Speaking from experience when I faced Branded especially pre-Tearlaments, this happened a lot. Thank you for the feedback
I mean, Red-eyes fusion is printed within the context of Shaddoll Fusion of 2014/15 yugioh, and they clearly had some feelings about how shaddoll went down. Branded Fusion was printed s e v e n years later, in a basically completely different game. And konami knew if they were gonna have a brand new fusion deck be a part of the meta game, they were gonna have to make that fusion spell *damn* good. Cause IDS was already struggling by that time.
I think you could do a second part of this video talking about the grass unban, the limitation of only branded fusion, and the estaller of the withe forest as more help for branded
@@alogamerp11 I think it's at least worth making a video about what changed since this video, for sure. I think once I'm done making the Vaylantz video I will likely work on an update video. Thank you for the suggestion!
@@Spikezillian_ you can talk about the rise of the 45, 50 or 60 vertions of the deck, the near inexistence of non pure branded tops, the adaptation of playing a domagtika package to combat fowalos, the light and darkenss dragonlord borreload furias dragon lines for shifter
I actually considered a Swordsoul video as a definite down the pipeline, because I also had some things to say about them and they fit the bill for me (decks that arent tier 1 or tier 0 right now, but are very scary and under the radar). Kashtira I could also talk about down the line because I am biased towards them, playing them with Harpies for more than a year. Great suggestions! Thank you for the comment!
1st of all, no one is saying Shaddoll Fusion is overall better than Branded Fusion. People are simply saying that in a Snake-Eyes dominant format, Shaddoll Fusion is better cause it cab be used to break their board with a single activation, giving you 3 amazing effects from cards that are specifically played to counter that deck. Now you kept complaining about Branded Fusion being a 1 card infinite resource but the same can be said about a whole lot of other starter cards in modern Yu-Gi-Oh. It being thrown into other decks can be easily avoided by simply limiting Branded Fusion so that there is no way for them to splash it in other decks with Albaz due to terrible ratios. Hell, even semi-limiting brafu can solve this issue. Increasing the chance of bricking even a little while having less consistency is enough to deter players from using it in any other decks except the one it was made for. Having multiple points of interaction is a must have for every new Yu-Gi-Oh archetype to thrive nowadays. The best decks all have that in common and branded is no exception. The only thing that Branded has that should be hit at some point is the gimmick puppet. By either banning Albion or the puppet itself the problem is solved. Does Konami love the archetype? It clearly does if they gave it so much support and even alternate arts now. However, there's not much that needs to be hit on the deck. Albion/puppet lock definitely is the number 1 thing to hit with limiting Branded Fusion as the 2nd best hit since it ends the splashability of the engine. Keep in mind though, the branded engine has been used in 2 decks that don't even see that much success while we're soon getting fiendsmith which will be way more splashable and insane when it drops. Having splashable engines is not a new concept in this game. Edit: Also your little rant for Branded Opening was hilarious when considering cards like Sangen summoning are allowed to exist. But no let's complain about the 1 card the deck plays that doesn't even stop the main weakness of their best card. Lost is a win more card if you ask me. It's better at breaking boards than actually making anything.
branded fusion as a splashable engine is straight-up a non problem, yes, you can splash this on stuff like dark magician and chimera, but most people think the engine is iffy at best on those decks to the point they may not even play it, today also you have stuff like snake eyes that bridges in so many different decks and generate so much card advantage that if you can play a target for oss in your deck you're putting yourself in a disadvantage by not splashing snake eyes on it (rescue ace, fire king, volcanics, even dino is playing oss)
Honestly lost is the most toxic branded card not named sanctifre or expulsion because it can invalidate almost every hand trap, its the only card outside sanctifire i thing could be banned tbh.
@@ora5799 That is very true. I play with my friend casually a lot and I even puppet lock him often which he just accepts and moves on with his day. However, the one card he really has an issue with and complains about is Branded Lost. Cause everytime he tries to do something while under the fusion summon window I remind him and he gets so frustrated. Also, Lost going 2nd is absolutely busted too, although you have to draw it.
THIS SHIT EXACTLY. every time I face branded at locals its the same shit everytime, I played 20 handtraps? doesn't matter I'm getting puppetted. I played all breakers? I'm definitely getting puppetted.
i was there Scyph lock, ra lock and now puppet War, war never changes. In the year 1945, my great-great grandfather, serving in the army, wondered when he get to go home to his wife and the son he never see. He got his wish, when the U.S. ended WWII by dropping an atomic cloud on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world awaited Armageddon, instead, something miraculous happened. We began to use atomic energy as a nearly limitless source of power. People enjoyed luxury once thought in the realm of science fiction. Domestic robots, fusion powered cars, portable computers. Then, in the 21st century, people awoke from the American dream. Years of consumption led to the shortages of every major resource. The entire world unraveled. Peace became a distant memory. It is now the year 2077, and we stand on the brink of total war, and I am afraid, for myself, for my wife, for my infant son, because if my time in the army taught me one thing; is that war, war never changes.
Honestly, most of the "degenerate" things you mentioned like Dragoon, Verte, or Branded Tear, were not really correct. People didn't play Dragoon much in Branded, Verte was banned for DPE being in every deck mostly and not because of Branded Fusion into Mirror Jade, and even when Branded Tear first was a thing, pure was just better. I think you're overblowing just how busted the cards are. Is it really good? Yes, definitely overtuned, but my main gripes with the archetype are the floodgates that are enabled by Sanctifire, and that fact it gets a bunch of meh or unplayable support so often like DM does when decks from the same story are left in the dust (Please, I want Springans and Tri-Brigade to get more support, they're such cool decks! I don't want the 50th dumb version of Ablaz or Aluber)
I don’t really think branded needs a ban as I research and watch replays the deck seems like the most balanced deck in the meta rn. If fusion gets ashed depending on the hand you may or may not be able to play. It has no real otk and it relies on its super Pollyesque gimmick to survive. The deck fusion monsters aren’t even ope most of them don’t have permanent protection or any ridiculous effect that doesn’t require cost. Plus most of its main deck locks you into fusion and hypothetically without an extra deck the deck couldn’t survive. While the puppet lock is degenerate ig maybe puppet itself should be hit. Honestly branded has no win condition the only unfair thing it can do is lock. I think an in archetype lock mechanic should be put in place that if properly designed wouldn’t be as oppressive. But the deck is somewhat pretty cheap so if you want to avoid the game being pay to win which is kinda what it already is (killing the fun in the process) Konami should probably hit multiple of the other tier 1 and 0 decks, limit hand traps and ban the locks themselves instead of the cards that may enable them. Without a lock there’s nothing to enable. Extra deck monsters should have more specific requirements or at the very least have limiting abilities when used out of archetype similar to some galaxy eyes monsters. This deck and others should probably be given a proper main deck boss as well to allow versatility and reducing reliance on the extra deck making the game itself more interesting, fair and affordable. Probably helping keep and grow player base in the long run. However branded itself doesn’t have much protection and falls prey to backrow and hand traps.
branded to be kinda insane but its my only way to make darklords playable nowdays so i dont mind it as much i do wish crystron or darklords or overall all decks got more support compared to one deck getting the most insane support until the next archetype releases.
- sits here with the 60 Card Branded Thunder Dragon deck I've been cooking whistling innocently - I smell salt. There's totally no problem outside of the Gimmick Puppet lock 😅 Don't look to closely at the fact I can operate under Dshifter,put Colusus and Dragoon on the board turn 1 with resoruces to spare, I swear there's nothing that degenerate here 😅 In all seriousness,Branded Fusion is cracked, I agree. I can understand it being hit. Problem is,bigger dumber shit. Except for one: Albion Sanctified needs to FUCKING DIE. That gimmick puppet lock needs to fucking die. I however do love the deck,but I am not blind to it's problematic nature. Personally even if it was bad, I would love this deck. It just exists in a way I can make a lot of wierd shit. I can feasibly run DMG and Blue-Eyes as targets for Fusion with little to no consequences,and I have. It just lets me have so much fun doing weird shit, and that's why Fallen of Albaz became my favorite card. Amd yes, shit can be broken without being top teir. Look at goddamn Runick. Entire deck is a design mistake.
My favourite thing about Branded is when the players start coping about how high a skill level it takes to play the deck...just to put Nightmare on the opps board. Windmill slam Branded Fusion, win game. BF gets ashed? Oh well...watch me play for 20mins to end on the same board. Before I even look at other comments, I'm sure I'll see multiple "Um ackshually Snake Eyes is worse" comments because there's no way to have two decks presenting similar issues for different reasons.
@Spikezillian_ I'm a plant player (European) and I'm the first person to call out the decks bs. Jasmine needs to be hit. Something about Branded players that just don't want their decks getting touched? It's wild. Next best decks is probably White Woods, Tenpai or Yubel. Tenpai is doing poorly in TCG now, but Sengoku will change that
While I can agree that Nightmare+Sanctfire Combos are kinda evil(as a branded player who uses said combo sometimes), I think that branded isn’t as good a deck as you think. Branded is a good deck because it can allow players like myself who can’t afford to find/buy the right generic cards/staple cards to be able to interact with a lot of combos while not being able to interact with everything. And if someone needs to combo for longer than normal if you hadn’t interrupted their fusion then there are more chances for you to prevent the branded player from getting their end board, right? I’m not a competitive player, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt, but I do often get beaten by other decks that are better or when I brick
@LordAlbion69 losing to bricked hands isn't a point on how the deck is balanced. Every deck loses to their own bad hands. There are no handtraps that a deck can play that are expensive. Ash, Imperm, Veiler, Mourner, Nib, and Ghost Ogre all have cheap printings now. Talents is still a bit but its not Thrust. Sanctifire is €15, Talent is €8. Up until the last month Rindbrumm, Guardian Chimera and Granguignol were €20 or €40. So I'm just ignoring budget points as well, after spending €100 on four extra deck cards, it makes no sense. Let's forget the Bystials because that'd be another €60-80 added on top of the main. And how much was Dragoon until RA02? €30? There is zero reason for people to not have staples after the last two Rarity collections. Supers of staples are cheap and accessible. Just putting into perspective that "because budget" doesn't really hold water as much as it did before they started printing relevant handtraps in structure decks as commons or supers, throw in Rarity...there's no excuse really 🤷♂️ Branded is in a different boat to Snake Eyes. Snake eyes is a concise deck that can run 15 handtraps and Crossout if they wanted. But that's the issue isn't it? Branded doesn't need to play handtraps. The entire deck is starters. Having non-linear combos is a Pro of the deck, not a Con. It doesn't have a clear cut choke point because any card can end on whatever board the Branded player wants if the opponent doesn't open 3 handtraps (and even then if the Branded player gets Nibbed, they still set the Branded in Red. Which is a free point of interaction.) Any other deck in format, double negate and a Nib is overkill and a gg go next. Being budget is also not a reason to not hit the deck. Mathmech Circular was hit with no excessive tops, no real hype, and zero support after it's release. Got whapped with the ban hammer because it was too loose in what it let cyberse.deks do. Circular last time I bought one was €2. The deck itself isn't the problem, it's the prevalence of the deck and knowing what it can do. Yet unlike Invoked or Shaddoll of the past, they have done nothing to the deck bar ban Expulsion, so the deck doesn't have two Sanctifire effects. Nobody wants the deck put out to pasture but Sanctifire needs to be banned for the exact same reasons Expulsion needed to go, and Branded Fusion at most needs to be limited. Deck should be playable, but it shouldn't (and no deck should) be able to turn off your opponents turn with Nightmare/Disciple or with a 30min 1st turn in game 1. The deck has way too large of a card pool of semi-generic support that just mentions Fallen of Albaz that there is no way to actually end the deck. I am a competitive player and an ex-Branded player at that. I've been on plants for two years and I'm more than happy to point out what the deck needs to get hit. Branded players have this weird culture of finger pointing when they get mentioned in a banlist prediction. "But what about snake eyes", "what about Tear", "What about Spright?", "What about Kash?" It's weird. I've never experienced in 20 years an entire player base be so blind to a decks issue. Hell, I played Wind-Ups back in the day and even we knew and admitted Zenmaity needed to be banned 😂 Whatever about budget players and I'm happy they have something to compete at events, really. But for competitive events, there shouldn't be any deck in the pool that says "lose the die roll, you don't get to play game 1 because windmill slam X spell and you didn't draw specifically Ash Blossom"
@@monkeybench okay, I don’t think I can address everything that you mentioned without spending way too much time on writing out a response so here’s a few things I wanted to mention: >if branded players are the only ones against certain card(s) being banned then maybe both sides of the argument should see where the other is coming from. >If any, could you explain why you don’t play branded anymore? I just want to ask out of curiosity. >Branded Fusion was most likely able to use materials from the deck to cut back on time spent trying to search for the cards needed out of the deck, and having them semi limited could be the best compromise due to the user not having too many while they also don’t need to spend an hour trying to search for the needed materials since you said that a branded player’s turn shouldn’t take 30 minutes(which I fully agree with). >Using Ash on a Branded Fusion not only stops the branded fusion user from getting their next combo piece but also stops them from thinning their deck, but also requires the user has or finds an alternative if they want to continue their combo. >If the user of Branded Fusion needs to find the resources to continue their combo, however, things will naturally take more time depending on what they need to search and if their opponent chooses to negate any of their searches. A solution to this problem would be to find a way to deal with the product of the user’s combo instead of trying to stop the combo itself. Well, that’s all I got time for. Have a good one because you deserve to be happy!
To be fair, Verte Anaconda wasn't banned for Branded Fusion, but for Red-Eyes Fusion, which enabled decks to have an omni-negating tower which they were not supposed to. I don't see the problem in Branded Fusion. The actual problems are Sanctifire Dragon and Branded Lost, the latter taking away almost every level of interaction you could have with the deck when it's playing. And Sanctifire enabling a lock is something I don't think needs further discussions.
Verte was banned for Red Eyes Fusion correct, but some decks also spent time using Branded Fusion with it as well. Which was why it was worth a mention in the video. And I agree! Thank you for your feedback
No it wasnt. Dragoon doesnt Do shit and died extremely easily while requiring awful bricks. The REAL reason was DPE, A card with flexibility and a fusion spell that, yk, wasnt extremely awful and was actually GOOD to draw
@@Spikezillian_ Dragoon flopped Hard in the tcg and Verte got banned because people used it to get access to DPE in every Deck even if they did Not draw fusion destiny. Im surprised you didnt talk about FD in this Video in General because its a much better comparison than... Shaddol fusion.
Its so insane that purrely got neutered before even doing anything while this thing is still out there, I've been playing purrely exclusively for a few months and it's not even near meta😭
This legit feels like just a complaint because people just don't like seeing it. Adventure was the most annoying shit ever, yet it is still around. All the top decks have 15 handtraps and if you are crying that you didn't draw one of you 15 handtraps or lost the die roll and didn't get your omninegate, that sounds like a you problem. They get rid of White Albion, the deck doesn't do puppet lock and other decks have other fusions and engines to go into that makes them good
I think a lot of people are missing the point. Branded is an abhorrently toxic deck. It just feels balanced compared to Snake-Eye and now Fiendsmith. It uses a lot of resources, yes, but all of those resources are never truly spent because of how easy it is to recur, recycle, or simply use it anyways. Half the deck is “really good existing card with ATK/DEF” and that’s simply not okay. I shouldn’t be able to combo into an effectively free super poly or have a quick effect poly by the virtue of playing the game. The ONLY time Branded isn’t a toxic deck is when the pilot sucks and horribly misplays. Just because it’s not the best deck doesn’t mean it’s not stupid that it exists.
This was one of my most hated archetypes purely because of all the floating. Always felt like an instant death if you didn't otk them, eliminated any possibility for a grind game.
Oh, so its just salt at "its my deck, but better". I thought you were going somewhere with this, ngl. Tho, as someone who hates Branded from a "favortism bias on komoney's side" angle, you probably just did a better job of selling the deck to me than that one guy on MD who plays exclusively the 60 card Branded pile
Despite me being Konami's main audience for Dragon based decks, Starter Deck Kaiba kid, OCG/MD kinda hits are generally good for future proofing, rare toppings, locks through Sanctifire or a stronger decks side piece now might end up being nothing if they do do more with Abyss lore, like has been sorta hinted, and give us like triple Omni negate Albion the Harem Dragon as a result of Konami esculating very hard and dont want that to be even stronger for a few months than it should. Also kinda funny that as a side piece for those stronger post POTE decks Branded Fusion ability as Ash bait can result in it allowing better boards while not resolving. And if instead its the monster summoned being impermed, well while its not as good overall foolish as shadoll its still a going first foolish.
Branded is a really strong archetype. But outside of the lock potential... a pretty fair one. If a lot more decks would be like branded (a lot of "bad cards" to extend plays in archetype and nearly no room for off engine)... ygo would be a better game. This draw the out Szenario just exist because other decks rely on off engine. The best way to win against branded (with a small engine) is to not let branded play. That creates a lot of non games. If more decks would have a bigger engine with more utility options, the branded board wouldn't be that opressive. Both players can't cancel the others gameplan and both can't otk through a couple of beatsticks. Longer games with more skill expression and this kind of deck rewards both of the deckbuilding and technical play aspects of this game. The problem isn't branded, any deck that needs to rely on off engine or just try to cancel any play of the opponent are the problems.
I splash branded into decks that I build that are fusion heavy, specifically because of how powerful it is. Especially with brick-eyes I have had some decent results using the cards. I'll admit that they're overpowered but as somebody who plays exclusively rogue decks the branded cards have saved my decks from being gutter trash so often that banning them would force me to abandon most of my fusion-based decks. These cards will get hit, probably, but definitely not before the snake-eyes engine does
It's really, REALLY annoying when conversing with meta players, and [Insert Overpowered Deck Here] comes up in conversation, and the other person goes "It's not even that good a deck." Also, you mentioned that Branded in Red was the second generic Quick-Play fusion spell. Flash Fusion is also a Quick-Play, though decidedly not as powerful as the other two, only fusing monsters you control, and the summoned monster is destroyed at the end of the turn. No cost though, so there might be some decent combo.
I mean, Branded definitely isn't the 3rd best deck after Snake eye and Tenpai. There are numerous decent options after those 2 that are better than branded. Branded is a well balanced deck all in all. It has some problems (santicfire has few use cases outside of locking someone), but so does every deck.
3:31 I feel you misinterpreted the restriction on Branded Fusion, or at least, you misrepresented it. It’s not a restriction that’s meant to kill the deck, it’s a restriction meant to prevent it from becoming tear zero while full power tear is legal. Because otherwise it becomes a link spamming deck with the tightest extra in existence, where someone might not even play Appo because it isn’t good enough, similar to POG for Tear in Banlistless formats.
Yugioh is in a crisis, we have an oppressive deck that causes attendance on some torunaments to fall, no YCSs in europe for almost 8 months and locals are declining in number because a few assholes choose to play snake eyes. A deck so powerful it hasnt gotten hit at all despite the fact its been played as an engine since october as the best deck and is getting more indirect support very soon. Even if it gets hit it wont be enough because now with fiendsmith its still consistent. And yugioh players go "yknow what? its albion, shifter, calamity and feather storm that are the true problem with the game" or make videos on how much they dislike branded
@@idkdontask7142 As I mentioned in a previous reply: I don't feel inclined to comment on decks that are clearly already tier 1 or better, as other content creators will likely speak on them already. My goal is to always look at decks that float under the radar and get away with it. Cause these are the kind of threats that you don't specifically prep for going into Regionals and Nats (hand traps excepted). Runick lists are another great example of something that can be daunting going in, but you're likely to prep your side for decks like Snake Eyes, Tenpai, Lightsworn, Melodious etc
@@Spikezillian_ well I dunno I think branded is fairly fair despite points you mentioned. I agree that "it isnt even good" is not a good response to a deck being fundamentally unfun buy i dont think branded is that deck. Most annoying things it ever did was make albion or dragoon but I think that most decks can play through a despia board, I was able to do it with floowandereeze and no board breakers lol
I don't feel inclined to comment on decks that are clearly already tier 1 or better, as other people will likely speak on them already. My goal is to always look at decks that float under the radar and get away with it. Cause these are the kind of threats that you don't specifically prep for going into Regionals and Nats (hand traps excepted). Runick lists are another great example of something that can be daunting going in, but you're likely to prep your side for decks like Snake Eyes, Tenpai, Lightsworn, Melodious etc
@@GGA_GachaGameAddict thats true, but I would never consider branded to just be puppet lock, just as how puppet lock is not the main point of the video
Two things I never even heard before watching this video: Branded Fusion being played in Voiceless Voice Someone saying Shaddoll Fusion is better than Branded Fusion lmao I have plenty more gripes with the disingenuousness and bad faith arguments in the video, but there is too much to type out for my lazy ass and a conglomerate of other commenters have already collectively voiced them for me
Everything I'll say here is Master Duel related, but overall opinion on Branded apllies to TCG too since all of its cards wouldn't be unlimited if it was bonkers broken tier -5 as people portray it to be. Gonna be a longer comment since im tired of people saying deck with like 4 different cards semilimited or limited needs more hits just cuz they dont like it.Tbh just shut up already guys. All the arguments i've seen so far are totally valid but only if for those who don't know from first person POV how the deck operates. Most of the decks power is in BF resolving and with all the Imperms for BF targets and Ashes it doesn't resolve much at all. BF alone gets u Mirrorjade, a pop with branded beast and 1 spell search which can't be Branded in Red since BF alone doesnt make it live. From this we conclude that all of the things you talk about being broken comes from 2-3 or even more card combos. No one seems to mention (ofc not cuz you don't play the deck so you wouldn't notice) how costly comboing can get. Lubelion and Branded Opening need a discard, deck doesnt play light as much as dark so it's not rare to not be able to go into Albion (ED) just cuz you dont have a dark in hand for Lubelion as material so you would have to fuse Albion with its own effect banishing it in the process and not getting his spell search. Kit searches but you put back a card in deck. Fusion is inherently more cost inefficient and that doesn't change too much in Branded and if you try the deck you will find out that a lot of times you have no option but to use your extender as material and waste it. Lots of cards that are extending or doing w/e need Albaz in GY to be live, and guess what happens with Albaz... It gets shuffled into the deck at the end of BF combo so Cartesia can't special, BIR is not live unless you have despians which is now not 1 card combo from BF, Kit can't special summon. Don't get me started on how the decks only QE negate is Dragostapelia (which you don't make first turn only 2nd if you go for BIR set and even then assuming you have a target in grave (and also this req of BIR makes it far from generic which you claim it to be)) and 2nd negate is Rindbrum which also isn't made first or 2nd turn the only exception is under maxc where you sometimes make Rindbrum and pass, also he is ED monster negate so he doesn't even prevent your starters from doing their thing before getting to negate anything if he's not removed before he gets the chance to do so. Getting through Branded board is much more fun than counting your cards in hand then counting enemy negates and if you have less stuff than opponent has negates surrender and go next, like some other decks that don't get nearly as much crap. Support hate I can understand but how is that relevant when all your saying is basically "this deck gets support and mine doesn't so ill hate on it". Many cards in this deck on their own don't do shit - BIR, Banishment, Adlib, Tragedy, Bystials - so if you get 2-3 of those going first with 1 handtrap yeah you're going set one pass which is not unlikely. Now with all of that said I want to say that i don't think the deck is weak nor avarage - It's pretty fucking good and got some powerful and cracked cards but in no way is it a problem or ban worthy. Banning BF kills the deck completely don't even argue for that since im pretty sure you would be against it if it was your deck. I'm absolutely against puppet or any kind of Branded lock and I do not play it and the ones who do are trash ngl which gives us bad rep. Ban puppet or even ban Albion (Sanctifire) both is fine by me and should be done. I enjoyed this video from a viewer perspective and think it's great, but I do not agree with a bunch of things in it which is also okay. I'm sure I wanted to point out more things but at this point im getting lost in the tought so I'll leave it at this.
This deck alone has gotten me to the point where I just surrender after a few turns. I swear it's the same combos over and over again, with some of the most resilient strategies that make it near unbeatable. Makes me glad I use kashtira and banish their stuff face down....
Hey everyone, thank you for watching the video! I really appreciate all the support the video has had so far. This was my most ambitious video ever and I am happy to report I want to make more videos like this in my future!
After the vote on 6/27, you guys decided on Vaylantz for the next video! See you guys then!
Additional note; If any Yu-Gi-Tubers are interested in reacting to the video I happily say please do! I would love to hear their insight!
i appreciate this video, subscribed!!
ill react next stream as the branded player in chief here on youtube :)
As a Branded player, I don't mind listening to someone explaining what the cards do once again :)
So real
same bro. Honestly, wouldn't mind branded fusion getting hit, would just make turbo masquerade so much funnier and common
@@toxicenddragon yea tbh if it does get hit it won't be such a big deal considering some branded monsters can just bring it back from GY
@@TheUltimateLifeForm5678 that's why it should be baned with their main monster
@@georgizahariev7639 but by how much?
You’re a brave man for making this video. Branded is probably the most popular deck outside of anime related stuff. People will always go for bat for Branded and say it’s just “okay” lol.
Someone had to do it! Thank you for your comment.
I would argue that Sky Strikers are more popular considering there is a whole manga centered around the archetype right now plus more merch with them headlining.
While I agree Branded Fusion is a powerful card on it's own, the entire deck surrounding it is fair enough that it's not a huge issue. Even with the Puppet Lock existing (Sanctifire needs to get hit), the deck has consistently hovered around low Tier 1 in the grand scheme of the meta. I will go to bat for it, but I'm not delusional enough to think the deck is just "okay". It's a great deck. I'm just of a mind that a deck being good isn't grounds for hate. A deck being so broken and unfair to play against that it centralizes the entire meta around it would warrant hate, but Branded is not that. It's a very consistent deck with a lot of flexibility in any given moment, and good follow-up, but the power ceiling isn't so high that other Tier 1-2 decks can't go toe to toe with it.
He's gonna be fine, Yugioh paywhales can barely do physical movement
@@Spikezillian_ we salute you
I like how we're deep in Snake Eyes era (with the deck not being meaningfully hit) about to enter Fiendsmith era, but everyone cries to have a Structure Deck based deck hit (even going beyond addressing Puppetlock)
Maybe because it's the 3rd best deck in the format right now
@@sirdragoner3446 you know theres a BIG gap between the top decks right.
@@Aaronfails I know, if it was up to me, Flamberge and sangen summoning would see the ban hammer, together with Sanctifier and Calamity.
The thing is, should snake-eyes and Tenpai get hit like that, Branded will be the best deck in the format and it's not exactly the newest deck, so it would propably have to be hit during the next banlist anyways.
Personaly with fiendsmith right around the corner, I think banning Sanctifier is enaught (but still nessesery). I just can see where people who want more of branded hit are coming from
@@sirdragoner3446 You know, I'm actually not sure about that. I think branded is only as good as it is right now because deck building has to be centralized around Snake Eyes. If snake eyes were to be hit, other decks would rise to fill that gap since it wouldn't be pushing them out of the meta, and if branded were to rise to the top among those decks, deck building and side boards would start accounting for it, and the deck would perform much, much worse. Branded has always been a very meta dependent deck - it does very well when it's under the radar, but as soon as people start respecting it while deck building, it tends to get bopped. Imo, anyways.
dude is just salty he lost at locals (nobody there has the money for a snake eye deck)
I have been having zero issues with Branded... _But,_ that's purely because I stripped down my maindeck engine to like, 15 cards, added two Crossouts and 2 Thrust/1 Talents, and filled in the rest with 19 handtraps. I have effectively made Handtrap OTK to deal with things like Snake Eyes.
The fact this type of deck building is now commonplace and _necessary_ and has pushed out decks like Branded doesn't mean Branded is weak, it just means the current format has managed to become more cancerous than Branded is.
Smaller engines leave room for larger counterplay to other decks. Things have changed a ton since 2021! Thank you for your comment.
@@Spikezillian_ I personally don't really like it. The way my deck is built and plays now makes it feel like it has lost its identity.
And there aren't a lot of decks who have the luxury of stripping down like what I did.
It's the Ash Blossom problem all over again, but 10x worse, where a ton of past decks get cut out because of modern design philosophy, and not because of any fault of their own.
@@aliesterus1.023 I remember when people first saw Tenpai and immediately thought about how small the engine was! Very much connects with your point!
@@Spikezillian_ I really don't like how the game has evolved to the point where you need to play a 1 card combo that gives you 8 points of interaction plus follow up and you gotta play 3 crossout and 20 handtraps on the main deck. A branded fusion does not generate half of the advantage that a diabellstar does without even the wanted draw. at least with stuff like invoked dogmatika you only got a negate and a monster pop in addition to the handtraps, but the deck by no means could just otk you using one card, which is sadly not the case with snake eyes.
@@OlgaZuccati I don't think it's quite as black and white as amount of bodies or breaking limits of a one card combo. I think the difference between a good deck and a rogue deck in 2024 still comes down to a few factors. I actually might make a video on the topic. I'm going to summarize so keep in mind this is off the cuff (right after work as well) but think about this:
1. Does my deck need to normal summon?
2. Does my deck have multiple monsters in the archetype that can special summon themselves? (Not special summon others, though it is strongly noted)
3. What presence does my deck have on the field vs in the hand, GY, Banished, etc? (This is notable for Veiler and Imperm, but beyond that as well)
4. How big is the engine?
5. What amount of back row is required and what kind of back row is it? (Quick spell, trap, normal spells only? Do they have a good field spell?)
6. Can my deck avoid hand traps or have multiple candidates that are all answered by one hand trap? (Ash? Droll? Ghost Ogre? Shifter?)
These kinds of questions are exactly why decks such as Tearlaments were so strong in a format where Shifter was still an option. It was also a deck immediately following Branded Despia, Floo, Eldlich, Swordsoul. Which of these 4 decks is still relevant and topping regionals/nationals today?
Regardless I do think Snake Eyes is better, but it's not about being better here, what matters is if the deck is good enough where hits are still a possibility, not a probability.
Thank you for your comment
All of these interactions are pretty much why I like Branded. You can interact with your opponent without spilling out a bunch of banworthy cards that only say "negate" on them all the time and it would still be a pretty competent. Winda and Sanctifier aside, its just fun to play with and against. Is it over tuned? Yeah. Though, sadly it just gets less heat because other decks are just better.
Half of the deck deserves to be on the list in some capacity for being “insert historically really good card with ATK/DEF” or “Another copy of a really good cars in your deck with ATK/DEF”.
Interacting with a built Branded board is a nightmare for anything that isn’t so unfun it’s boring to run test hands after doing the same 7 minute combo 15 times. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been forced to scoop because of Cartesia, Branded in Red, and an Albaz special on my own turn.
Only time Branded isn’t toxic is when the pilot sucks and doesn’t know what they’re doing. It’s disgusting that Branded is considered “fine” because of what’s occupying Tier 0.
@@WolfPackAlpha-sn2swBro is afraid of Albaz summon on his turn. You're probably playing a mid deck then. There's plenty of good decks that can break through Branded boards without puppet. Puppet is literally the only thing holding Branded as high as it is in the meta. If that lock gets banned Branded instantly loses half its playerbase and goes down a tier for sure.
Branded this, Branded that
How about they print some Brand new Railway support cards?!
- Tries to lock me with Gimmick Puppet
- I actually play Gimmick Puppets for shit and giggles
- DUDE WTF! YOU WERENT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT
i wish my petdeck got even 5% of the support branded gets, meanwhile we have "MST but worse", "book of moon but worse"
With Harpies as my pet deck, I can relate to a certain extent. We ate good from time to time but we're starving now!! Thank you for your comment.
Unironically, thank you for teaching me how to play Branded well. These cards can do so much, and it feels like I just suck with them. I didn't even think of using Voiceless voice in Branded.
I have been playing Branded for a while an do fairly well with it, every now and then though I will get clobbered by another Branded duelist with combos I haven't thought of yet.
You are right that branded fusion is cracked card. Its a foolish for a light and dark and then lets you with basically fusion summon any fusion you want. But.... it doesn't get that much hate because there are more broken decks.
Whenever I wanna complain about a card like BF, I remember sangen summoning & the gimmick puppet fields... we have field spells that search, make their archetype uninteractable AND have other utilities (puppet one also helps SS for le ftk). I dunno what to call "broken" or "cracked" these days.
@@boraaksitozgun9912 most of the meta is broken. Right now people are just throwing hand traps at each other and the first one to resolve a starter wins
@@josephcourtright8071 It’s been that way since 2017 with a few format exceptions.
@@bobbybero7452 for me, TOSS (2019) was glorious at its height, best ygo I ever played between Salad vs Orcust. Hell, enjoyed it more than edison.
It's powerful but has a relevant lock that keeps it in check. If other decks after Branded did the same, the meta would be a lot more balanced.
I understand your reasoning, but branded is actually not as oppressive as you make it out to be in this video. There is a famous saying among the competitve scene if you respect branded as an archetype its easy to beat. Branded as a archetype is probably one of the most technical archetypes in the game. Literally requiring a huge amount of skill to pilot especially in this stage of the current meta. There is a reason only a small number of them make it to the top cut at major events. Its a deck that is the opitome of skill expression. Even at full power you have to the deck precisely or you will get literally fucked from a to z. I would say branded is one the most "fair" modern archetypes to exist in Yugioh after a long time.
Branded now days is fair
Sanctifer banned and Branded Fusion back at 3, then we can talk.
As someone who uses branded. The reason people think this deck isn’t a big deal is most branded players play completely braindead. This deck is a power house even with most of their cards being limited to 1. Deck is extremely powerful and needs more hits tbh.
This deck recipe made me a god of duel links th-cam.com/video/63rqAfyWfQo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=WTkmL4xjmPEU3fsO
it wont be in the tcg if they got most of their cards limited to 1.
I agree for the power, but I don't agree with the hits. The only things that should be banned are Sanctire and Gimmick Puppet Nightmare. The rest is all okay.
It doesn't need hits. Branded is not the problem
@@OGITHEMANfinally someone with more than one neuron who understands sanctifire has no fault
Branded/despia is basically a featherweight champion boxer, but its constantly fighting outside its weight class against middle and heavyweight boxers. So in other words branded despia is only OP if all the other power gouses didn't exist.
Im 95% sure that the reason that people think branded is bad is because the players are on average not that great
In master duel i tend to beat Branded decks with such powerhouses as: Cyber Dragon, Dragon Maid, Suship, Blue Eyes, and B.E.S.
That fusion is kinda insane and my experiences against good players with Branded, Tear, and Chimera have me start to fight back with my own overpowered Fusion card (Chimeratech) out of pure frustration.
Branded is easy to understand and welcoming to new players. The average newcomer chooses "Power of the Dragon", search for Dragon cards and say wow! there are a lot of Branded dragons, ill play that
The same goes for old players returning to the game
bait used to be believable...
I don't think branded is a problem if we remove sanctifier shenanigans tbh, the combos are not linear and use a lot of your resources, it's very fun to play with and against in my opinion, of course this is only mine tho
Branded Fusion gets Ashed.
Proceed to take 30min turn to end on Masquerade, Dragoon, and Mirrorjade.
Why is being non-linear relevant?
The fact it's non-linear is why the deck needs a ban. Every card you look at in a Branded hand, is a potential starter. That's not healthy for the game.
@@monkeybench no one uses dragoon, especially in the tcg. if branded fusion gets ashed, there is almost nothing you can do, except if you have hard drawn extenders (which most are normal summons, quem, aluber, cartesia if you dont have access to albaz)
@@monkeybenchbranded is healthier then most decks, as unlike the current decks being 50% deck, 50% hand traps, it’s has to be roughly 80% gas. It limits the available interaction they have outside of mirrorjade and the preda fusion.
It would be healthier if there wasnt a fucking puppet monster every turn on your board that does not let you play
@@monkeybench scraps salutes you
I dont think anything you talked about outside of the puppet lock os a real criticism. Branded Fusion is a very strong card but the curent deck doesnt really need to resolve fusion to win. This is the only viable fusion locked deck and outside of the puppet is completely fair and very interactive
It's pretty balanced too. Every other deck doesn't have much restrictions and run toxic boards. Branded cant even abuse the fiendsmith engine like everyone either
I typically find videos that are more than just complaining about a certain topic and actually goes into explaining the why pretty interesting. Which is why I went into this video with an open mind to genuinely see and understand some of the points you make. However, there's just plenty of incorrect points in this video that kinda irk me and id like to shed some light on em. A lot of the complaints don't exactly feel like complaints but instead "Well this deck has a lot of strong cards, so that means the deck must be hit somehow". I do wanna say that I still enjoyed the editing of the video and how it was structured. My goal in most of this isn't to come out at you and lash about why youre shitting on the deck or something, but more so to explain some things and why I dont think they exactly hold up. I feel like discussion is both very important and very fun in such topics.
I don't know how long this will get so sorry in advance since I assume it will be pretty long and potentially tiresome. I just find it an interesting topic to talk about so expect a lot of things buuut
TL;DR: Albion is absolutely a card that should be 100% removed from the game as it's one of the most toxic things about this current metagame. Some of the things you mentioned would be actually justifiable or even valid at the time when the structure was released. It's been over 2 years at this point, and a lot of those points either aren't true or just don't hold up. I understand that some of the cards read kinda like crazy, but the game has changed to where that's just not the case anymore since there's just a lot more power into the current game. And if you think that it's insane how such a powerful deck is somehow not the powerhouse it ought to be, that's more so a criticism with how fast the game evolves rather than a branded issue. The deck is extremely powerful still, but the unfortunate reality is that in the current format, the deck performs mostly because it can auto win via sanctifire. Ban that and the deck just becomes completely fine in the current format. Maybe you have bad experience with it in locals or md or whatever, but on the topic of MD, the reason why it's so nerfed in both ocg and md is because of how well it plays into maxx c, not because it has too powerful cards or what not.
As for the video itself:
A lot of the points I will make won't go over the puppet lock because a) I 100% agree that everything revolving the lock is unfair and should not exist b) there was little emphasis to the lock in the video anyways.
In general there's just some weird points that aren't really true. Like for example comparing mathmech circular and branded fusion. Not only is branded fusion not a true 1 card combo since it needs a discard + you need a dark for the better version of the combo (you rarely will not have access to a dark but it does come up and it's important to know).
Comparing both the end board as well as how resilient the two combos are gives pretty clear insight as to why circular is a very stupid card while branded fusion albeit very powerful isn't as stupid. I don't know if I think circular should be banned still but it's clear that one is more powerful than the other for a multitude of reasons that id happily explain but currently isn't particularly important.
Chapter 1:
I understand that fusion summoning any level 8 or higher is still extremely potent, but not only is it not entirely generic which is still important that there are limitations (as well as branded fusion actually locking you into things compared to something like ostinato), you also cannot directly summon into what you want. Going first that's not particularly important but going second it can definitely come up, that you need to play around specific floodgates or interactions, and being limited to just albaz fusions can be tough. Which funnily enough banning sanctifire even helps with that, which if you need something over 2500 atk, your only option is titaniklad except if had a fusion already on board to make mirrorjade for example. Small thing but important nonetheless.
As for the verte thing, people didn't exploit verte that much with branded. It did happen but most of them prefer going for dpe because fusion destiny isn't a bad draw in non fusion decks, while branded fusion is very awkward to draw in a non fusion deck. There are ofc pros and cons for both packages but brafu is definitely not a strictly better one and is potentially not as splashable
At some point you also make an argument about lines that go under nibiru, but only are these lines not as good, to actually make good boards under 4 summons you need like a 3 card combo or something which seems completely fair to me. For example, you had mirrorjade cartesia, bystial lubellion and in red as the 4 summon endboard, which not only is this at minimum a 2 card combo + discard, to actually have this board under 4 summons you need a 3 card combo + discard. Please do correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see a line that can actually make this endboard and both need less cards and not play into nib,and ofc without doing something like mirrorjade banish your own monster to get the send in the gy.
Chapter 2:
Making dragoon + extra stuff needs a decent amount of resources typically, except if you can open very specific hands, where at that point you're losing out on other things. While you can ofc pop off and have just utterly bonker endboards with also dragoon on board, most of the time you have to sacrifice either follow up or lose on your ability to set up variable boards. Which in recent years, that's arguably more important than an omni, which is one of the reasons why people don't typically play Dragoon anymore (among others).
Tear Branded is a pretty interesting and fun variant but nowhere near pure tear ishizu in terms of power. Which if anything that's a good thing, how you can mix and match branded cards to make interesting strategies but they don't break anything.
Cont. in the comment below!
For some reason posting this comment is getting me an error (maybe the size of the text?) so i'll continue the rest of my thoughts in this reply.
Chapter 3:
I don't exactly understand why an archetype having a lot of cards is bad. Especially because we have a decent amount of archetypes with a lot of cards in a small span of time. Gladiator beasts for example got around 40 from 2007 to 2011 and other lore heavy archetypes like tellar also got around 50 cards in the span of 3-4 years. There are ofc a lot of really good cards around the branded archetype, but it's the same with the world legacy decks and to a similar extent the visas decks (but I believe not as much).
In this chapter in general there are a lot either weird or incorrect points. Like for example mirrorjade outing noir which, while technically true, you'd need to either crash into said noir, which would mean your opponent has their noir in atk for some reason or they'd have to remove it themselves, which noir already has the option to shuffle back mirrorjade if it does try to threaten anything.
Branded in red possibly being the second generic quick play spell is kinda neat actually! (or well, almost generic but I'll give it to you). It's especially interesting because ever since then, we've gotten some generic quick play fusion spells like chimera fusion, mementotlan fusion and naturia blessing, which have the ability to summon anything but with typically some restriction on the materials.
Granguignol absolutely gets summoned way more than just often. It's so important in fact that some even play two of em. And because you kinda mentioned it in conjunction with sanctifire, you very typically go into granguignol to perform the lock, but even without they it's extremely useful.
Aluber's gy effect realistically very rarely comes up. It can be annoying true, but there's just too many times where you'll banish him off with albion to fusion summon.
Lost is a very good card but you can always just pop it instead of just negating it or something. Decks still have that kind of interaction after all, and even meta ones like fire king, lab or salad. Also backrow removal is played a loooot. One of the most common side cards is cosmic followed by harpies.
The thing about mercourier is also kinda weird. How he's a tri brigade card that's abused by branded. Not only is he not really abused because a majority of its uses are quite interesting, it fits a lot with the lore and that's pretty neat. Technically it's a tri brigade card but mercourier is most typically seen with albaz (even though shuraig also has em). Which is why the effect is most relevant for branded but you technically could use it in tri brigade (although admittedly it's nowhere near as good and mostly would be for the spice rather than an actually good option).
I think this is quite long at this point so I'll just speed up through the rest. Theater is not used anymore at all and in white is definitely not the least used fusion spell. High spirits is very good ofc but isn't as cookie cutter. It's typically way better going first than second, similar to nadir as you mentioned. Regained is also a good card but not used in branded really because most of the time you prefer lost anyways. Beast is kinda similar but it's used even less. Both suffer from the fact that you play so few bystials so you just don't get as much advantage, especially beast.
Dramaturge also isn't really used at all, and is also kinda odd to go over especially when you have cards like banishment that actually are used, which kinda goes to the final point and the end of this huge thing (I'm sorry for how long it has gotten). Before that though, you didn't really mention retribution much, which is kinda fair because it's on field effect isn't used as much it's still a critical card on the strategy.
Overall my main issue with everything excluding points where I feel you have have misconceptions about the deck, is that a lot of those arguments are things that were true 2 years ago. Brafu in 2022 was incredibly strong. Now it's still strong, but it doesn't keep up as much. That's because mirrorjade isn't as oppressive, because a lot of decks don't suffer to out it. I understand that plenty of rogue decks can struggle against branded's sheer power, but that's just a lot of meta decks currently for the better or for the worse. If anything, throughout the years branded has become so much more interesting, because when the structure deck released it kinda was either mirrorjade turbo or double masq turbo with rhe option to summon either chimera or dragostapelia on the opponents turn. Which most of the time you just tried to resolve brafu and go from there. The deck has massively evolved from that, and isn't reliant on just brafu to do anything, making the deck not feel like you either fuck them up with ash or you don't, making it inherently just a more fun matchup.
Not only that, it's one of the most interactive decks in the format, and in general has a lot of room for experimentation via its plays, deckbuilding etc. Id love to hear more opinions and views about this whole topic because I feel like branded is one of those decks that people just play against the most insufferable people ever and get huge misconceptions about the deck. Just ban sanctifire really. Screw the puppet lock in general.
Oh and last thing because I almost forgot, chapter 4:
Voiceless and chimera don't really play Brafu. Most voiceless lists don't even play it, preferring to go pure. As for chimera, it does actually play brafu a lot, but mostly as a starter to go into the chimera plays rather than the branded portion. There's a huge likelihood that people will prefer playing the fiendsmith cards over brafu (Maybe not immediately but most likely after closed moon releases) but I don't know enough to say.
Wait until someone tells this guy about ostinato 😂
You could say Ostinato causes.... the brown note :]
*Ostinato:* wanna hear a joke?
Branded fusion: yes.
*Ostinato:* Not restricted to only fusion summon, and not once per turn effect
Branded fusion: I don't get it
*Ostinato:* Exactly
@@dhiaajalloul7218 Bro why tf can I get an omni negate and 3 Apollousa negates off an engine without using my normal summon. 😭😭😭😭
And the fact that you also have the option to make any rank 4 like infernal flame banshee to search poplar or snake eye ash is even worse
seriously, 1 ostinato gets you wayyy more than 1 branded fusion can ever get you on its own. branded fusion combined with other 2 or 3 card combos can get you a crazy endboard yes. but on its own its literally what, mirrorjade pass like what
@@Aaronfails some decks can use it as an actual engine piece like chimera, but that's pretty rare... ostinato having no summon lock of any kinda and generating 4 negates AND giving you a free pendulum scale which some people forget just means you get a free special summon in any deck is pretty dumb... It already has ways to just give you a snake eye combo and in chimera they can just search polymerization as part of the engine too if you play tam tam. Wouldn't be surprised if it had direct ways of giving combos to other archetypes too...
Your description of Branded Fusion describes every deck tough. Yes, resolving your main starter leads to strong endboards...
However, Branded is one of the few decks that actually utilizes your whole hand for the combos. It is not linear and the endboard is breakable (as soon as we ban sanctifier). You are also not able to run 12+ handtraps and it is very difficult to play.
That is why playing with or against branded is always fun, if you have 2 competent players.
I swear the deck is extremely fun to play with once you get the hang of it. Puppet is annoying and should be banned but so are all floodgates if you ask me.
@@ether2275 We need to ban Sanctifire, there are so many alternatives to Puppet
This exactly. Every point against Branded Fusion can be made against Snake-Eye Ash or OSS. Branded is in fact even more interactive because, like you said, they can run almost no non-engine
@@FuzzymothGames Yeah, the deck can fit little to no handtraps.
Why should they ban Sanctfire Albion? Because of Gimmick Puppet Nightmare’s effect? If people have a problem with that combo then ban Nightmare, I don’t see why Sanctfire needs to be banned.
man i’m stressing over fireking , snakes eye hell runick is more of a headache then branded. Y’all mad against the wrong thing
I am a Branded player and end up getting clobbered by Snake Eyes Fireking nearly every time.
Making a second comment to address some mistakes and/or add additional context.
Branded opening doesn't Discard for Cost, it does for effect (even better lol) it triggers Tragedy or a tear name... Or whatever really.
Branded in High Spirits is a hard once per turn and 1 effect per turn, so it doesn't recycle from its own effect.
Granguignoll can summon way more than you think too. Despian Luluwalilith, a level 12 Synchro, is also a despia in your Extra Deck. And so is Proskenion. Both of which are pretty good targets as well, though Luluwa and Queritis are the best.... In the extra deck.
It can also summon a Dogmatika from Main Deck, like Ecclesia, Quem or Maximus.
Thank you for these notes! A friend of mine also noticed the Branded Opening mistake I made after I uploaded. Pretty wild that it isnt for cost LOL. Granguignol goes crazy!
@@Spikezillian_ no problem, I know a bit too much about these cards. All I must do is share.
Not only does this show how powerful Branded is, but it was also a really good deck/archetype breakdown, great job man 👍
@@fury374 Thank you for the feedback! More to come soon. Working on the Vaylantz video!
Other thing that makes Expulsion so more broken is that you can't even respond it with conventional interruptions like Called or Belle if both targets are banished, while Sanctifire is way easier to deal with as long as you have GY interruption.
Great point! Thank you for your input
This is crazy! Branded needs to be hit, but all of these other decks are running wild! Snake Eye, Tenpai, pure Voiceless Voice. Did you not see Branded vs Rika Plant match in a recent championship??? People will say he use the puppet lock in both of his matches, but did you see the board that Jess made in the second match?? If Jess made that board in the first match there’s no way he could’ve beat that. Branded is great, but so are a lot of other decks.
Branded Fusion was able to sprint because Shaddoll fusion ran. Its a great card.
I'm taking notes to enhance my Brainded deck 😇
Yo I just wanna say thank you for playing Octopath music in your ost it goes so hard!! (I say as I contemplate trying out Despia-)
I am not an RPG guy, but I fell deeply in love with Octopath Traveler especially for the beautiful music. Unfathomable list of masterpieces. Genuinely one of the best soundtracks from start to finish this decade. Thanks for noticing!!
great video. I 100% agree with everything you've said. Branded for the past 2 years has been top tier. It's always been so annoying playing against them bc they NEVER run out of steam. The deck is super consistent. They are always able to somehow recycle their resources over and over again. It's a completely broken deck and im glad you brought attention to it
Compared to Horus, which do the same but better, Salamangreat which do the same but better, Fire-king, snake-eye..... Yeah Branded is only annoying because people are getting the taste of their own medicine
that's literally every deck from 2020 to now. all the main decks from toss format had pretty much infinite recursion, branded's main competition in form of swordsoul could also loop resources effectively infinitely and also they put you in a clock by looping longyuan. it's really weird that people are singling branded out for this specifically. that's just how the game is played nowadays. it's like complaining that a deck doesn't auto loses to nibiru when that has been a thing that konami does since nib has been released in the tcg.
@@OlgaZuccati I find your reply to my original comment to be very childish and moronic. Pls do not reply any further
Guy who plays feindsmithyibelsnakeeyestenpai
Branded doesn’t need to get hit, the players do (I’m a branded player)
*whacks with newspaper* "bad dog! bad dog! no performing puppet lock!"
@@DarkAuraLordThe newspaper: A Gimmick Puppet Deck
-verte was banned mostly because of dragoon and dpe, not mirrorjade.
-branded tearlaments is a meme, and pure was better even before ishizus.
-granguignol is realistically summoned every turn 1, no idea why you say this card isn't summoned much.
-chimera branded is strictly worse then branded, and most VV decks don't play branded fusion
-most one card branded fusion combos don't make good boards. Mirrorjade pass is not real. Most branded boards are 2-3 card combos
You can genuinely puppet lock with 1 branded fusion not sure how this is a real take
@@mrdivinex4365 no you can't
@@ivan_popz you can but its highly susceptible to interruption, requires 2 granguignol. also main phase lock not draw
@@ivan_popz you're slow
Verte was banned because of DPE. Dragoon is a bitchass that didnt do anything and it is my divine duty to trashtalk him every Chance I get
I think the comparison between branded fusion and shaddoll fusion is very dumb due to the reasons you mentioned and the fact that it makes people not see what old card branded fusion really compares to that being brilliant fusion
Brilliant Fusion is a fusion spell truly like no other. Very scary. Some others in the comments have mentioned Ostinato as well. Thank you for your comment!
It made me realize, as a Branded player, even if they were to ban or limit Branded Fusion in the TCG, we still will ended up with other busted cards to put in our decks, even non-branded cards like Chimera. And considering Branded is one of Konami’s cash cow archetypes, I sense they’re gonna bring this back with new sets that could be more broken.
This was why I wanted to break down all the Branded options rather than the main subjects! Thank you for taking the time to enjoy the video and thank you for the comment.
You wanna test how good your opponent can pilot branded? Just ash the fusion.
Most of the time, they spit out a few monsters and thats it... But my lord, if you go against a skillful branded player? They got a plan B, C, and D ready that hold their board.
The fact branded is one of the few meta relevant decks that let your opponent actually activate cards and not negate them, is why i love this deck. If sanctifire gets banned i wouldn't even care, in MD the only reason i started to play with sanctifire was because of tenpai release, otherwise i like the interactions and multiple lines you can do or have to do after being handtrapped a bunch of times for the best board possible.
The only reason i didn't like tear as a deck was because there wasn't a similar restriction to it like branded, but instead they could all kind of summonings which gave flexibilty to the deck, especially with the ishizu cards. Decks like branded are more needed, they don't use to many handtraps, they rely mostly to play around handtraps by have multiple lines/options.
Are people really saying Branded doesn’t top? It made top 32 at YCS Indianapolis 2-Jun recently and prolly topped more events beforehand
it won uk nationals 2 weeks ago if i remember correct
It can top, but the only reason it's up there close to the top decks right now is because of the Puppet lock.
Branded has some cracked cards to enable fusion plays without spending the proper resources, because fusion summoning is inherently more resource intensive and net negative than synchro, XYZ, and link. Only ritual is worse (and needs stronger crack to function).
Remove Puppet lock and it's fine. Ideally, errata Albion to negate the effect of monsters you summon to your opponent's side of the field
@@supersaiyan7315 Correct. And it was pretty crazy timing seeing as I originally scripted this video in April of 2024 beta.yugiohmeta.com/top-decks/uk-national-championship-2024/branded-despia/rob-e./-xCF5
This definitely gave me a lot to think about as a Branded lover since the structure deck came out, even more so once I could afford Cartesia, Quem, and Bystial Lubellion.
Some of your criticisms are entirely fair, most notably puppet lock (obviously) and Branded Lost (stupid fucking card).
BUT! The amount of time I found myself pausing the video to correct you is a little staggering (I’m sure you’ve heard these corrections from some people but in case not):
“Opening discards for cost.” No it doesn’t, there’s no semi-colon.
“High Spirits triggers itself.” No it doesn’t, you only get 1 effect of it per turn.
Etc. etc. I’m sure you’ve heard all these thing that are effectively “minor spelling mistake.”
At the same time, there’s some other points you made that come down more to opinion and preference considering, yeah, Branded can do whatever the hell it wants (which I personally value, I think that’s cool the # of different ways to build it, but that’s a different point).
“You can use it to make Dragoon!” We haven’t been widely making Dragoon since like Kash format, maybe. It requires a brick in the deck with already too much engine and Mirrorjade provides much more long term value than a single Omni that discards. Like, we established Dragoon wasn’t good when DPE released pre-Verte ban.
Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever watched Branded make Winda. Not to say it doesn’t happen, and I’m sure it can (and thinking about it I don’t see why it doesn’t happen, actually), but still.
“Dragostapelia is good because Branded in Red makes it with Albion branded on field.” Uhhhhhhh if you’re leaving Albion branded on field to banish it, then that’s just wrong, right? You’re trying to tribute it for Bystial Lubellion to get lost on field (which is arguably more broken).
Including Regained and Beast in the relevant cards section? Yes, we did play that in the past, and you were definitely right to include them alongside cards like Dramaturge and Ad Lib, but we haven’t played either of those since like, I dunno, AGOV format.
“Theater is the best fusion spell outside of Branded Fusion and would probably be played if Branded Fusion was ever gone.” Uhhhh, this is just something I personally disagree with (because we can’t know unless BF does get the axe). It only fuses from hand or field, which is something that Cartesia, Red, and White can all do already (and don’t die to MST), and that second effect doesn’t matter in the slightest. 9 times out of 10 I’ve banished the Aluber (or at least it *should* be banished) off of Albion branded to make fusion Lubellion.
“Branded is played in Chimera!” Uhhh, not anymore. Last I checked that deck pivoted to Chimera illusion after PHNI with the release of Nightmare Apprentice and Diabellze opening up Beatrice lines, among other things.
The VV point is completely valid, tho. I just don’t find that deck particular oppressive when I go against it with Branded (which, I guess, is easy for me to say as I main deck Bystials, Lights + Darks, Thrust + Talents, etc.) Also! Another point in favor of Branded’s annoyance is that BF is an “activate once per turn,” so if you Skull Guardian negate it and I add it back with Retribution, I can fire it again.
Side note, you did forget a bunch of playable branded cards in the discussion, but I’m sure you did that to save in time, realistically (like cutting Luluwalilith, Super Poly + Mudragon and Garura, Alba-Lenatus, Titaniklad, Rindbrumm, Borreload Furious, etc.)
Anyway, typing all this out makes me realize how some of even these point are just effectively “minor spelling mistake” but they do also negate (pun not intended) some of your frustrations. (Ofc I say that w/o knowing your specific personal experience). “Oh we make Dragoon? But it’s not good! Oh Theater is good, too! But it really isn’t. High spirits is broken because it triggers itself! But that’s not how the card works.”
I’m sure you did your research (I mean, you clearly did, don’t get me wrong), but messing up the nuances made this sort of a frustrating watch.
But on the larger points of Branded being basically unrestricted are entirely valid, we can just disagree on whether or not that’s a bad thing (creative play style and deck building outside of puppet lock vs. game balancing)
Also, idk WHO tf is saying “At least it’s not Shaddoll fusion” but they are a psychopath and deserve no rights because that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, for every reason you outlined (not that I’ve EVER heard someone say that before this video).
Anyway, sorry, I know this is very long and I’m sure you have better things to do than read this entire middle school essay. Just needed to voice some things.
I have no hard feelings against you and I hope you know that I do not intended on this coming across hostile or as a hate comment.
Have a good day!
@@unamusedwaffle Very constructive and well written. You are correct I did notice these mistakes after the video was uploaded, my friends who watched the video beforehand did not notice these mistakes. Thank you for the corrections.
I think the Dragoon Winda Dragostapelia section was heavily based on my experience facing them. Especially since I've been facing Branded since Branded Fusion was released and I have most certainly seen these options even up until just last Friday I saw someone do the Winda under Schism thing I mentioned in the video.
Thank you for your comment. You have a great day as well!
Cool argument, every deck has this problem
I agree, a lot of decks have their own balance issues. Thank you for your comment.
@@Spikezillian_ I know my comment was super simple and doesn't communicate what I meant effectively, in a more constructive form. Konami has a problem with power creeping yugioh, it's why we keep having tier 0 after tier 0 format, they're hitting a breaking point where power creep is progressing so fast the games becoming unplayable
@@NixiShavalMusic Once again I fully agree, and I meant to present that message to the audience in the video at the start of Chapter 4 ( 24:40 ) where I mention how insane POTE was as a base set. Thank you for your in-depth response!
@@Spikezillian_ Pog, I was worried you were subtly snapping back at me for giving a shitty response haha, I do agree that this game has a lot of problems at the current time
And then there's Etude of the Branded, which Synchro Summons on the opponent's turn, *DODGING THE ONLY DOWNSIDE OF BRANDED FUSION* and making it possible to _Calamity Lock without Crimson Dragon._ 🐉
In my view, Branded is one of most balanced Deck rn. Branded isn't the problem and dosn't deserve hits, it's the Gimmick Puppet lock the problem.
At least you can completly shut down Branded plays with one or two card, not like Snake Eye or others, they can't play 12 Handtraps and had restricted Extra Deck and you need to discard to resolve (some Meta decks dosn't have resolving cost).
Yes Branded is strong, like any other Deck with good pilots, but clearly not with this Deck that Konami goes too far. I really like how Branded Deck is Balanced, need more archtype like that, not overly powerful, just good.
There are other problem cards Sanctifire can spam with effects like GPN.
The problem is Sanctifire being able to summon any 2 monsters.
If you ban GPN Sanctifire can still summon any number of bs, the barrier statues come to mind but there are plenty of others that are worse to have on your field (read "better on your opponent's field for the branded player").
Ban Santifire, ban BF, ban the red Albion just to be safe.
@@owo2312 not to bright
@@owo2312 I agree with banning Sanctifire, but your reasoning needs a LOT of work lmao. Learn how the card works and what the problematic interactions actually are before commenting.
@@blastchaos4286 I only brought up a single reason why it needs to be banned, there are plenty more.
@@owo2312then state all of them and let every single person correct you on that so you can go mad about it. Don't forget to get mad at this comment as well
"Massive monsters made long before nibiru can out them." Didnt know we were struggling out here against 2500 beat sticks. Also... why are we bringing up Dragoon? Noone that plays branded is playing it. Its not good.
For real, this guy is worried about monsters with blue eyes stats like every other deck hasn’t have at least one 😂😂😂
yes the thing is, that you have like 0 handtraps in branded, so you need to make at least 1 interuption for each card
i get your point, i get people who dont like it...
but i love it, its cheap and it doesnt need spreadsheets and 100+ hours of lab to work. so i play it.
also, ban sanctifire or puppet, i want to play the fun version
Imagine having a card that's pretty much searchable 1 sided dimension fissure, that allow you to synchro summon on enemy turn, and it's not even worth playing (im still playing it xd)
Great video Spikezillian!! Love the format, visuals, music choice, and THAT VOICE!!! 😍❤️
Gotta make more of these, cant wait for the next one!!
SUBSCRIBED!! 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you Matt!! You bet there will be more to come, working on the next video as we speak!!
have to say good edited video but what confuses me is the hate for dragoon. dont get me wrong the card is good in a vaccuum but first off how do you go into it in branded: eiter throuh Lubellion or albion(the fusions) and eiter one has ups and downs but both leave you as the player without mirrrorjade. in addition to that dragoon looses hard to ty-phon.
one funny trivia is that melodious fusion spell in a vaccuum is so much better than brandeds.
the thing i agree the most with is that albion the sanctifire dragon should be removed from the game because that card is toxic as hell
and lastly i say the branded fusion lock to only fusion is one of the locks i like the most in reccend memory because it allowes to splash the deck to some extend but limits you from staples like s.p. or ty-phon. it also makes the deck weak to cards like d-barrier and you have a couple of effective counters to the deck.
Mind you, people can make Dark Dragoon turn 2 using Branded in Red if they wanted to, they just won't with Sanctifire in existence. Speaking from experience when I faced Branded especially pre-Tearlaments, this happened a lot.
Thank you for the feedback
so in the end - BAN ASH BLOSSOM!!!!
New to your content, I really like the way you did this video essay format. Good video my guy hope to see more like this from you soon 🤝
Thank you for your feedback! Working on the next big video as we speak! More like this to come. :)
The fact that red-eyes fusion does the same thing but worse shows how selective Konami is
I mean, Red-eyes fusion is printed within the context of Shaddoll Fusion of 2014/15 yugioh, and they clearly had some feelings about how shaddoll went down. Branded Fusion was printed s e v e n years later, in a basically completely different game. And konami knew if they were gonna have a brand new fusion deck be a part of the meta game, they were gonna have to make that fusion spell *damn* good. Cause IDS was already struggling by that time.
I think you could do a second part of this video talking about the grass unban, the limitation of only branded fusion, and the estaller of the withe forest as more help for branded
I am a branded player
@@alogamerp11 I think it's at least worth making a video about what changed since this video, for sure. I think once I'm done making the Vaylantz video I will likely work on an update video. Thank you for the suggestion!
@@Spikezillian_ thanks to you for talk about my favorite deck
@@Spikezillian_ you can talk about the rise of the 45, 50 or 60 vertions of the deck, the near inexistence of non pure branded tops, the adaptation of playing a domagtika package to combat fowalos, the light and darkenss dragonlord borreload furias dragon lines for shifter
The salt is real lmao
Loved the video. Tryna do swordsoul or Kashtira next?
I actually considered a Swordsoul video as a definite down the pipeline, because I also had some things to say about them and they fit the bill for me (decks that arent tier 1 or tier 0 right now, but are very scary and under the radar). Kashtira I could also talk about down the line because I am biased towards them, playing them with Harpies for more than a year. Great suggestions! Thank you for the comment!
1st of all, no one is saying Shaddoll Fusion is overall better than Branded Fusion. People are simply saying that in a Snake-Eyes dominant format, Shaddoll Fusion is better cause it cab be used to break their board with a single activation, giving you 3 amazing effects from cards that are specifically played to counter that deck.
Now you kept complaining about Branded Fusion being a 1 card infinite resource but the same can be said about a whole lot of other starter cards in modern Yu-Gi-Oh.
It being thrown into other decks can be easily avoided by simply limiting Branded Fusion so that there is no way for them to splash it in other decks with Albaz due to terrible ratios. Hell, even semi-limiting brafu can solve this issue. Increasing the chance of bricking even a little while having less consistency is enough to deter players from using it in any other decks except the one it was made for.
Having multiple points of interaction is a must have for every new Yu-Gi-Oh archetype to thrive nowadays. The best decks all have that in common and branded is no exception. The only thing that Branded has that should be hit at some point is the gimmick puppet. By either banning Albion or the puppet itself the problem is solved.
Does Konami love the archetype? It clearly does if they gave it so much support and even alternate arts now. However, there's not much that needs to be hit on the deck. Albion/puppet lock definitely is the number 1 thing to hit with limiting Branded Fusion as the 2nd best hit since it ends the splashability of the engine.
Keep in mind though, the branded engine has been used in 2 decks that don't even see that much success while we're soon getting fiendsmith which will be way more splashable and insane when it drops. Having splashable engines is not a new concept in this game.
Edit: Also your little rant for Branded Opening was hilarious when considering cards like Sangen summoning are allowed to exist. But no let's complain about the 1 card the deck plays that doesn't even stop the main weakness of their best card. Lost is a win more card if you ask me. It's better at breaking boards than actually making anything.
branded fusion as a splashable engine is straight-up a non problem, yes, you can splash this on stuff like dark magician and chimera, but most people think the engine is iffy at best on those decks to the point they may not even play it, today also you have stuff like snake eyes that bridges in so many different decks and generate so much card advantage that if you can play a target for oss in your deck you're putting yourself in a disadvantage by not splashing snake eyes on it (rescue ace, fire king, volcanics, even dino is playing oss)
@@OlgaZuccatibrand Ed fusion engine would only be an issue if it gave you access to puppet lock, which it doesn't.
@@OlgaZuccati That is true
Honestly lost is the most toxic branded card not named sanctifre or expulsion because it can invalidate almost every hand trap, its the only card outside sanctifire i thing could be banned tbh.
@@ora5799 That is very true. I play with my friend casually a lot and I even puppet lock him often which he just accepts and moves on with his day. However, the one card he really has an issue with and complains about is Branded Lost. Cause everytime he tries to do something while under the fusion summon window I remind him and he gets so frustrated. Also, Lost going 2nd is absolutely busted too, although you have to draw it.
THIS SHIT EXACTLY. every time I face branded at locals its the same shit everytime, I played 20 handtraps? doesn't matter I'm getting puppetted. I played all breakers? I'm definitely getting puppetted.
i was there Scyph lock, ra lock and now puppet
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LOL Thank you for the copypasta
Dominus Impulse says hi
Opening discard by card effects. Not COST. so tearlaments can trigger
Honestly, most of the "degenerate" things you mentioned like Dragoon, Verte, or Branded Tear, were not really correct. People didn't play Dragoon much in Branded, Verte was banned for DPE being in every deck mostly and not because of Branded Fusion into Mirror Jade, and even when Branded Tear first was a thing, pure was just better.
I think you're overblowing just how busted the cards are. Is it really good? Yes, definitely overtuned, but my main gripes with the archetype are the floodgates that are enabled by Sanctifire, and that fact it gets a bunch of meh or unplayable support so often like DM does when decks from the same story are left in the dust (Please, I want Springans and Tri-Brigade to get more support, they're such cool decks! I don't want the 50th dumb version of Ablaz or Aluber)
Tri-Brigade just needs Sovereign Simorgh back, summoning Mercourier, Ponix, or a Lyrilusc of choice will let them pop off.
I don’t really think branded needs a ban as I research and watch replays the deck seems like the most balanced deck in the meta rn. If fusion gets ashed depending on the hand you may or may not be able to play. It has no real otk and it relies on its super Pollyesque gimmick to survive. The deck fusion monsters aren’t even ope most of them don’t have permanent protection or any ridiculous effect that doesn’t require cost. Plus most of its main deck locks you into fusion and hypothetically without an extra deck the deck couldn’t survive. While the puppet lock is degenerate ig maybe puppet itself should be hit. Honestly branded has no win condition the only unfair thing it can do is lock. I think an in archetype lock mechanic should be put in place that if properly designed wouldn’t be as oppressive. But the deck is somewhat pretty cheap so if you want to avoid the game being pay to win which is kinda what it already is (killing the fun in the process) Konami should probably hit multiple of the other tier 1 and 0 decks, limit hand traps and ban the locks themselves instead of the cards that may enable them. Without a lock there’s nothing to enable. Extra deck monsters should have more specific requirements or at the very least have limiting abilities when used out of archetype similar to some galaxy eyes monsters. This deck and others should probably be given a proper main deck boss as well to allow versatility and reducing reliance on the extra deck making the game itself more interesting, fair and affordable. Probably helping keep and grow player base in the long run. However branded itself doesn’t have much protection and falls prey to backrow and hand traps.
Semi limiting branded fusion would be fair or even limiting it it would stop people from splashing cause then you would need a bigger package
My IQ goes temporarily into the negatives whenever someone says “draw the out”
And they ask why people play Skill Drain.
*whistles innocently while playing a scuffed stun True Dracos*
@HawaiianForgeStudios lmao
As a red-eyes player i despise the fact that branded can easily steal dragoon from both DM and RE without suffering like they would have to is wild
finally someone else who fucking hates branded i thought i was the only one
If you as me they should make the archetypes more restrictive
branded to be kinda insane but its my only way to make darklords playable nowdays so i dont mind it as much
i do wish crystron or darklords or overall all decks got more support compared to one deck getting the most insane support until the next archetype releases.
- sits here with the 60 Card Branded Thunder Dragon deck I've been cooking whistling innocently -
I smell salt. There's totally no problem outside of the Gimmick Puppet lock 😅
Don't look to closely at the fact I can operate under Dshifter,put Colusus and Dragoon on the board turn 1 with resoruces to spare, I swear there's nothing that degenerate here 😅
In all seriousness,Branded Fusion is cracked, I agree. I can understand it being hit. Problem is,bigger dumber shit.
Except for one: Albion Sanctified needs to FUCKING DIE. That gimmick puppet lock needs to fucking die.
I however do love the deck,but I am not blind to it's problematic nature.
Personally even if it was bad, I would love this deck.
It just exists in a way I can make a lot of wierd shit.
I can feasibly run DMG and Blue-Eyes as targets for Fusion with little to no consequences,and I have. It just lets me have so much fun doing weird shit, and that's why Fallen of Albaz became my favorite card.
Amd yes, shit can be broken without being top teir.
Look at goddamn Runick.
Entire deck is a design mistake.
Nice breakdown!
Thank you! Make sure to vote for the next one :)
th-cam.com/users/postUgkxH7mTBr3Emt4ug-qUVaep_EZ7ftvZRop7
My favourite thing about Branded is when the players start coping about how high a skill level it takes to play the deck...just to put Nightmare on the opps board.
Windmill slam Branded Fusion, win game.
BF gets ashed? Oh well...watch me play for 20mins to end on the same board.
Before I even look at other comments, I'm sure I'll see multiple "Um ackshually Snake Eyes is worse" comments because there's no way to have two decks presenting similar issues for different reasons.
When Snake Eyes gets banned, who will be the next best deck? Only the ban list can decide that! Thank you for your comment.
@Spikezillian_ I'm a plant player (European) and I'm the first person to call out the decks bs. Jasmine needs to be hit.
Something about Branded players that just don't want their decks getting touched? It's wild.
Next best decks is probably White Woods, Tenpai or Yubel. Tenpai is doing poorly in TCG now, but Sengoku will change that
While I can agree that Nightmare+Sanctfire Combos are kinda evil(as a branded player who uses said combo sometimes), I think that branded isn’t as good a deck as you think. Branded is a good deck because it can allow players like myself who can’t afford to find/buy the right generic cards/staple cards to be able to interact with a lot of combos while not being able to interact with everything. And if someone needs to combo for longer than normal if you hadn’t interrupted their fusion then there are more chances for you to prevent the branded player from getting their end board, right? I’m not a competitive player, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt, but I do often get beaten by other decks that are better or when I brick
@LordAlbion69 losing to bricked hands isn't a point on how the deck is balanced. Every deck loses to their own bad hands.
There are no handtraps that a deck can play that are expensive. Ash, Imperm, Veiler, Mourner, Nib, and Ghost Ogre all have cheap printings now. Talents is still a bit but its not Thrust. Sanctifire is €15, Talent is €8. Up until the last month Rindbrumm, Guardian Chimera and Granguignol were €20 or €40. So I'm just ignoring budget points as well, after spending €100 on four extra deck cards, it makes no sense. Let's forget the Bystials because that'd be another €60-80 added on top of the main. And how much was Dragoon until RA02? €30? There is zero reason for people to not have staples after the last two Rarity collections. Supers of staples are cheap and accessible. Just putting into perspective that "because budget" doesn't really hold water as much as it did before they started printing relevant handtraps in structure decks as commons or supers, throw in Rarity...there's no excuse really 🤷♂️
Branded is in a different boat to Snake Eyes. Snake eyes is a concise deck that can run 15 handtraps and Crossout if they wanted. But that's the issue isn't it?
Branded doesn't need to play handtraps. The entire deck is starters. Having non-linear combos is a Pro of the deck, not a Con. It doesn't have a clear cut choke point because any card can end on whatever board the Branded player wants if the opponent doesn't open 3 handtraps (and even then if the Branded player gets Nibbed, they still set the Branded in Red. Which is a free point of interaction.) Any other deck in format, double negate and a Nib is overkill and a gg go next.
Being budget is also not a reason to not hit the deck. Mathmech Circular was hit with no excessive tops, no real hype, and zero support after it's release. Got whapped with the ban hammer because it was too loose in what it let cyberse.deks do. Circular last time I bought one was €2.
The deck itself isn't the problem, it's the prevalence of the deck and knowing what it can do. Yet unlike Invoked or Shaddoll of the past, they have done nothing to the deck bar ban Expulsion, so the deck doesn't have two Sanctifire effects. Nobody wants the deck put out to pasture but Sanctifire needs to be banned for the exact same reasons Expulsion needed to go, and Branded Fusion at most needs to be limited. Deck should be playable, but it shouldn't (and no deck should) be able to turn off your opponents turn with Nightmare/Disciple or with a 30min 1st turn in game 1.
The deck has way too large of a card pool of semi-generic support that just mentions Fallen of Albaz that there is no way to actually end the deck.
I am a competitive player and an ex-Branded player at that. I've been on plants for two years and I'm more than happy to point out what the deck needs to get hit. Branded players have this weird culture of finger pointing when they get mentioned in a banlist prediction. "But what about snake eyes", "what about Tear", "What about Spright?", "What about Kash?"
It's weird. I've never experienced in 20 years an entire player base be so blind to a decks issue. Hell, I played Wind-Ups back in the day and even we knew and admitted Zenmaity needed to be banned 😂
Whatever about budget players and I'm happy they have something to compete at events, really. But for competitive events, there shouldn't be any deck in the pool that says "lose the die roll, you don't get to play game 1 because windmill slam X spell and you didn't draw specifically Ash Blossom"
@@monkeybench okay, I don’t think I can address everything that you mentioned without spending way too much time on writing out a response so here’s a few things I wanted to mention:
>if branded players are the only ones against certain card(s) being banned then maybe both sides of the argument should see where the other is coming from.
>If any, could you explain why you don’t play branded anymore? I just want to ask out of curiosity.
>Branded Fusion was most likely able to use materials from the deck to cut back on time spent trying to search for the cards needed out of the deck, and having them semi limited could be the best compromise due to the user not having too many while they also don’t need to spend an hour trying to search for the needed materials since you said that a branded player’s turn shouldn’t take 30 minutes(which I fully agree with).
>Using Ash on a Branded Fusion not only stops the branded fusion user from getting their next combo piece but also stops them from thinning their deck, but also requires the user has or finds an alternative if they want to continue their combo.
>If the user of Branded Fusion needs to find the resources to continue their combo, however, things will naturally take more time depending on what they need to search and if their opponent chooses to negate any of their searches. A solution to this problem would be to find a way to deal with the product of the user’s combo instead of trying to stop the combo itself.
Well, that’s all I got time for. Have a good one because you deserve to be happy!
To be fair, Verte Anaconda wasn't banned for Branded Fusion, but for Red-Eyes Fusion, which enabled decks to have an omni-negating tower which they were not supposed to. I don't see the problem in Branded Fusion. The actual problems are Sanctifire Dragon and Branded Lost, the latter taking away almost every level of interaction you could have with the deck when it's playing. And Sanctifire enabling a lock is something I don't think needs further discussions.
Verte was banned for Red Eyes Fusion correct, but some decks also spent time using Branded Fusion with it as well. Which was why it was worth a mention in the video.
And I agree! Thank you for your feedback
No it wasnt. Dragoon doesnt Do shit and died extremely easily while requiring awful bricks. The REAL reason was DPE, A card with flexibility and a fusion spell that, yk, wasnt extremely awful and was actually GOOD to draw
@@Spikezillian_ Dragoon flopped Hard in the tcg and Verte got banned because people used it to get access to DPE in every Deck even if they did Not draw fusion destiny. Im surprised you didnt talk about FD in this Video in General because its a much better comparison than... Shaddol fusion.
@@kotkafer2292 DPE & Fusion Destiny is a great mention, I forgot about that. Thank you
@HumanDevilTV this is the most accurate take. Those are the only cards that need to be addressed in the deck. The rest can be left alone.
Its so insane that purrely got neutered before even doing anything while this thing is still out there, I've been playing purrely exclusively for a few months and it's not even near meta😭
branded fusion is just circular in sheep's clothing
This legit feels like just a complaint because people just don't like seeing it. Adventure was the most annoying shit ever, yet it is still around. All the top decks have 15 handtraps and if you are crying that you didn't draw one of you 15 handtraps or lost the die roll and didn't get your omninegate, that sounds like a you problem. They get rid of White Albion, the deck doesn't do puppet lock and other decks have other fusions and engines to go into that makes them good
I think a lot of people are missing the point.
Branded is an abhorrently toxic deck. It just feels balanced compared to Snake-Eye and now Fiendsmith. It uses a lot of resources, yes, but all of those resources are never truly spent because of how easy it is to recur, recycle, or simply use it anyways.
Half the deck is “really good existing card with ATK/DEF” and that’s simply not okay. I shouldn’t be able to combo into an effectively free super poly or have a quick effect poly by the virtue of playing the game.
The ONLY time Branded isn’t a toxic deck is when the pilot sucks and horribly misplays.
Just because it’s not the best deck doesn’t mean it’s not stupid that it exists.
This was one of my most hated archetypes purely because of all the floating. Always felt like an instant death if you didn't otk them, eliminated any possibility for a grind game.
Remember folks. Only ever ash branded fusion. Nothing else
Love branded. It has so many routes
imagine if konami ban albaz or limit it instead other card
branded fusion on its own does do all that much.
Oh, so its just salt at "its my deck, but better". I thought you were going somewhere with this, ngl. Tho, as someone who hates Branded from a "favortism bias on komoney's side" angle, you probably just did a better job of selling the deck to me than that one guy on MD who plays exclusively the 60 card Branded pile
Despite me being Konami's main audience for Dragon based decks, Starter Deck Kaiba kid, OCG/MD kinda hits are generally good for future proofing, rare toppings, locks through Sanctifire or a stronger decks side piece now might end up being nothing if they do do more with Abyss lore, like has been sorta hinted, and give us like triple Omni negate Albion the Harem Dragon as a result of Konami esculating very hard and dont want that to be even stronger for a few months than it should.
Also kinda funny that as a side piece for those stronger post POTE decks Branded Fusion ability as Ash bait can result in it allowing better boards while not resolving. And if instead its the monster summoned being impermed, well while its not as good overall foolish as shadoll its still a going first foolish.
Yes branded is amazing but it doesn’t need hits
Yes it does
@@Cynder44 sure
Branded is a really strong archetype. But outside of the lock potential... a pretty fair one.
If a lot more decks would be like branded (a lot of "bad cards" to extend plays in archetype and nearly no room for off engine)... ygo would be a better game.
This draw the out Szenario just exist because other decks rely on off engine.
The best way to win against branded (with a small engine) is to not let branded play. That creates a lot of non games.
If more decks would have a bigger engine with more utility options, the branded board wouldn't be that opressive. Both players can't cancel the others gameplan and both can't otk through a couple of beatsticks. Longer games with more skill expression and this kind of deck rewards both of the deckbuilding and technical play aspects of this game.
The problem isn't branded, any deck that needs to rely on off engine or just try to cancel any play of the opponent are the problems.
Let’s go Branded!
I splash branded into decks that I build that are fusion heavy, specifically because of how powerful it is. Especially with brick-eyes I have had some decent results using the cards.
I'll admit that they're overpowered but as somebody who plays exclusively rogue decks the branded cards have saved my decks from being gutter trash so often that banning them would force me to abandon most of my fusion-based decks. These cards will get hit, probably, but definitely not before the snake-eyes engine does
Rogue decks getting indirectly hit has been a big setback for a lot of people lately! Thank you for your comment
When the video so good you really had to like, subscribe, comment and turn on notifications.
Hell yeah! More to come! Thank you for your generosity!
It's really, REALLY annoying when conversing with meta players, and [Insert Overpowered Deck Here] comes up in conversation, and the other person goes "It's not even that good a deck."
Also, you mentioned that Branded in Red was the second generic Quick-Play fusion spell. Flash Fusion is also a Quick-Play, though decidedly not as powerful as the other two, only fusing monsters you control, and the summoned monster is destroyed at the end of the turn. No cost though, so there might be some decent combo.
I mean, Branded definitely isn't the 3rd best deck after Snake eye and Tenpai. There are numerous decent options after those 2 that are better than branded. Branded is a well balanced deck all in all. It has some problems (santicfire has few use cases outside of locking someone), but so does every deck.
3:31 I feel you misinterpreted the restriction on Branded Fusion, or at least, you misrepresented it. It’s not a restriction that’s meant to kill the deck, it’s a restriction meant to prevent it from becoming tear zero while full power tear is legal. Because otherwise it becomes a link spamming deck with the tightest extra in existence, where someone might not even play Appo because it isn’t good enough, similar to POG for Tear in Banlistless formats.
6:00 also two of the fusion spells are dogs***
Also Nib under 5 summon take is wrong imo, you’re always summoning way more than 5 monsters
Also Shaddolls are very very rare to see, you might as well be talking about tear because they play it a hell of a lot more
Also if you got hit with Verte into Branded Fusion, you got cheated.
Yugioh is in a crisis, we have an oppressive deck that causes attendance on some torunaments to fall, no YCSs in europe for almost 8 months and locals are declining in number because a few assholes choose to play snake eyes. A deck so powerful it hasnt gotten hit at all despite the fact its been played as an engine since october as the best deck and is getting more indirect support very soon. Even if it gets hit it wont be enough because now with fiendsmith its still consistent.
And yugioh players go "yknow what? its albion, shifter, calamity and feather storm that are the true problem with the game" or make videos on how much they dislike branded
@@idkdontask7142 As I mentioned in a previous reply:
I don't feel inclined to comment on decks that are clearly already tier 1 or better, as other content creators will likely speak on them already. My goal is to always look at decks that float under the radar and get away with it. Cause these are the kind of threats that you don't specifically prep for going into Regionals and Nats (hand traps excepted).
Runick lists are another great example of something that can be daunting going in, but you're likely to prep your side for decks like Snake Eyes, Tenpai, Lightsworn, Melodious etc
@@Spikezillian_ well I dunno I think branded is fairly fair despite points you mentioned. I agree that "it isnt even good" is not a good response to a deck being fundamentally unfun buy i dont think branded is that deck.
Most annoying things it ever did was make albion or dragoon but I think that most decks can play through a despia board, I was able to do it with floowandereeze and no board breakers lol
@@idkdontask7142And that's why it's called Bird Floo. 😈
bro hating on branded HARD 😂 what about SNAKE EYES? TEMPAI? ETC?????? IF BRANDED FUSION GETS HIT ALOT OF PLAYERS I KNO ARE QUITTING THE GAME
I don't feel inclined to comment on decks that are clearly already tier 1 or better, as other people will likely speak on them already. My goal is to always look at decks that float under the radar and get away with it. Cause these are the kind of threats that you don't specifically prep for going into Regionals and Nats (hand traps excepted).
Runick lists are another great example of something that can be daunting going in, but you're likely to prep your side for decks like Snake Eyes, Tenpai, Lightsworn, Melodious etc
@@Spikezillian_get good and stop making dumb videos on rogue decks.
@masterflamewing234 Did you really just called branded a rogue deck ? 💀💀💀
@@masterflamewing234Branded? A rogue deck? You’re on something special, huh?
@masterflamewing234 Rogue is a bit much. I would say tier 3.
Me with my buster blader deck looking at this mostly dragon deck
Well looking at your video catalog certainly gives context to the saltmine im listening to.
He plays Snake-Eyes and Salamangreat but complains about Branded lmao
@@LittleMushroomGuynahhhh, bro had no right to complain except for the puppet lock. That lock is just so devious
@@GGA_GachaGameAddict thats true, but I would never consider branded to just be puppet lock, just as how puppet lock is not the main point of the video
@@LittleMushroomGuy also fair
@@GGA_GachaGameAddict I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy your weekend
Two things I never even heard before watching this video:
Branded Fusion being played in Voiceless Voice
Someone saying Shaddoll Fusion is better than Branded Fusion lmao
I have plenty more gripes with the disingenuousness and bad faith arguments in the video, but there is too much to type out for my lazy ass and a conglomerate of other commenters have already collectively voiced them for me
Shaddol fusion has niche application vs snake eyes. In a vacuum, brafu is 100% a stronger card tho.
Everything I'll say here is Master Duel related, but overall opinion on Branded apllies to TCG too since all of its cards wouldn't be unlimited if it was bonkers broken tier -5 as people portray it to be. Gonna be a longer comment since im tired of people saying deck with like 4 different cards semilimited or limited needs more hits just cuz they dont like it.Tbh just shut up already guys. All the arguments i've seen so far are totally valid but only if for those who don't know from first person POV how the deck operates. Most of the decks power is in BF resolving and with all the Imperms for BF targets and Ashes it doesn't resolve much at all. BF alone gets u Mirrorjade, a pop with branded beast and 1 spell search which can't be Branded in Red since BF alone doesnt make it live. From this we conclude that all of the things you talk about being broken comes from 2-3 or even more card combos. No one seems to mention (ofc not cuz you don't play the deck so you wouldn't notice) how costly comboing can get. Lubelion and Branded Opening need a discard, deck doesnt play light as much as dark so it's not rare to not be able to go into Albion (ED) just cuz you dont have a dark in hand for Lubelion as material so you would have to fuse Albion with its own effect banishing it in the process and not getting his spell search. Kit searches but you put back a card in deck. Fusion is inherently more cost inefficient and that doesn't change too much in Branded and if you try the deck you will find out that a lot of times you have no option but to use your extender as material and waste it. Lots of cards that are extending or doing w/e need Albaz in GY to be live, and guess what happens with Albaz... It gets shuffled into the deck at the end of BF combo so Cartesia can't special, BIR is not live unless you have despians which is now not 1 card combo from BF, Kit can't special summon. Don't get me started on how the decks only QE negate is Dragostapelia (which you don't make first turn only 2nd if you go for BIR set and even then assuming you have a target in grave (and also this req of BIR makes it far from generic which you claim it to be)) and 2nd negate is Rindbrum which also isn't made first or 2nd turn the only exception is under maxc where you sometimes make Rindbrum and pass, also he is ED monster negate so he doesn't even prevent your starters from doing their thing before getting to negate anything if he's not removed before he gets the chance to do so. Getting through Branded board is much more fun than counting your cards in hand then counting enemy negates and if you have less stuff than opponent has negates surrender and go next, like some other decks that don't get nearly as much crap. Support hate I can understand but how is that relevant when all your saying is basically "this deck gets support and mine doesn't so ill hate on it". Many cards in this deck on their own don't do shit - BIR, Banishment, Adlib, Tragedy, Bystials - so if you get 2-3 of those going first with 1 handtrap yeah you're going set one pass which is not unlikely. Now with all of that said I want to say that i don't think the deck is weak nor avarage - It's pretty fucking good and got some powerful and cracked cards but in no way is it a problem or ban worthy. Banning BF kills the deck completely don't even argue for that since im pretty sure you would be against it if it was your deck. I'm absolutely against puppet or any kind of Branded lock and I do not play it and the ones who do are trash ngl which gives us bad rep. Ban puppet or even ban Albion (Sanctifire) both is fine by me and should be done. I enjoyed this video from a viewer perspective and think it's great, but I do not agree with a bunch of things in it which is also okay. I'm sure I wanted to point out more things but at this point im getting lost in the tought so I'll leave it at this.
Sanctifire is better than expulsion and it is somehow still not banned
This deck alone has gotten me to the point where I just surrender after a few turns. I swear it's the same combos over and over again, with some of the most resilient strategies that make it near unbeatable. Makes me glad I use kashtira and banish their stuff face down....
"I use the most toxic deck that is completely banned outside of master duel" lmao stfu
@@LittleMushroomGuy lol you okay my guy? Did kashtira hurt you? 😂
@@shadow3746 Ummm, did Branded hurt you? Lmao
@@LittleMushroomGuy it's the reason I play kashtira
Kastira is cancer, if the effects were once per turn instead of once per chain it would be fine.
0:13 jokes on you I don’t use ash blossom or maxx c sure I’m probably at a disadvantage but I don’t feel like crafting them
Where's rindbrum?