Thoughts on Archetypes

<!— #SQUARK live! dev! | dest = yugioh/thoughts-on-archetypes | desc = My thoughts on all the Yu-Gi-Oh archetypes I’ve watched, researched, or played against | style = yugioh | index = yugioh | shard = #SHARD / writing / opinion / long | clean = angles —>

Just laying out my thoughts on all the archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh I’ve faced, watched and understood throughout my time playing. Being such a prolific custom card creator and having created so many archetypes, I find I hold perhaps quite different perspectives to the rest of the playerbase, caring significantly more about design tropes and principles.

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Adamancipator

> rocking the rocks

I used to face this a lot in Master Duel, but I haven’t seen them for a while – probably since Block Dragon^↗ was banned. Aw man, this thing with Block Dragon was just… like, how is it even fair for you to search 3 cards with 1 effect. The spam was crazy. The excavating took so long. And ofc, they’d end up with a board with negates upon negates. Not very fun.

From a design perspective tho, I really love the cards! The little explorers excavating cards is sooo on-point. Dragite^↗ is a top-notch Yu-Gi-Oh Dragon, I’ll give them that. The way the archetype synergises with other Rock Monsters is pretty awesome, even if it results in broken boards.

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Branded

I remember when I first saw these cards all over Master Duel – this was just about when I was getting back into the game, so they were totally unfamiliar to me – and thinking, ’damn, cool names, cool art, cool cards’. It was a wonderful kind of blissful ignorance.[^bliss-feel] While I thought the cards were cool, I really didn’t like how the deck functioned at first. A very linear and efficient combo, just felt kinda scummy for such low effort.

[^bliss-feel]: I’m sure you know the feeling – when something is fresh and unfamiliar, and you’re navigating it for the first time. Everyone longs to have it back afterwards.

As I’ve discovered the rest of the archetype though, and most importantly delved into its rich lore (courtesy of GoldenNovaYugioh^↗), I unknowingly came to love it. I still don’t play it, and don’t plan on playing it, but I absolutely adore the characters and art and the magnificent inter-weaving story. Can’t wait for part 2. I kinda hold an uncharged[^uncharged] respect for its efficiency and resiliency (for me at least, it’s one of the quintessential modern decks), and I do like that its combos have become more diverse and non-linear with the addition of all the new cards. Also, Branded is a blast to duel against.[^duel]

[^uncharged]: As in, kinda neutral, not really charged with any intense feeling. [^branded-duel]: I’m lookin’ at you, Drytron <3

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Bystial

Personally, I don’t think this archetype should exist, like Knightmare – then again, I am a little impartial since I play LIGHT and DARK decks… but in all seriousness, I don’t find their power healthy for the game. They’re a bit too much for handtraps, especially since they all have bonus effects on top of it all. Magnamhut^↗ being able to search itself for free fodder or reusage feels as broken as Kashtira Fenrir^↗ searching itself.

Lubellion^↗ is pretty powerful, but I think having one card like that is fine – it’d just be nice if the whole archetype wasn’t that jacked too. Dis Pater^↗ is quite a unique boss monster. Naturally, as a custom card creator I really appreciate when they make bosses more interesting than just protection and negates.

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Clear Wing

> bring the SPEED

Oh my, what a collection of insanely awesome anime-level Dragon Aces. I’m actually struggling to express my feelings here.

“Clear Wing”! It’s so simple, but it iust sounds so cool. “Clear Wing Synchro Dragon” just flows in such a delicious way[^clear-wing-flow] that makes it so satisfying to say. I think it’s the combination of the 2 really ‘polished’ words “clear” and “wing”, along with the power of “Synchro Dragon”. It sounds… idk, sharp. It’s got an edge. Then you have Crystal Wing, which sounds like a perfect upgrade, into Crystal Clear Wing – this sorta hierarchy is what I LIVE FOR. It’s so. Damn. AWESOME.[^clear-wing-awesome]

[^clear-wing-awesome]: Alliteration ON-POINT.

Art-wise, well. Clear Wing Synchro Dragon’s^↗ front-pose one is definitely the coolest, but Clear Wing Rider^↗ has a sick angle too, and Crystal Clear Wing^↗ has a real ‘boss’ pose. I love the whole aesthetic of the archetype (green isn’t my favourite colour by any means, but it is really pretty here), especially with the long, segmented tails. Also WIND is a cool (hah) attribute,[^clear-wing-wind]

[^clear-wing-flow]: Tbf, all the Dimension Dragons’ names do too. [^clear-wing-wind]: It IS my second favourite Attribute.

I don’t know what it is with Synchro Dragon Ace Monsters all having negates, but that was the theme here, oh well. It’s a liiittle stupid how many negates the archetype has as a whole, but it’s still cool anyway. Also pulling off a double negate through Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is kinda funny. I do like the ATK gain effects, it’s very anime-esque but not broken. I think of all of them Crystal Clear Wing has the most stellar set of effects, really fitting for an archetypal boss.

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Code Talker

> Rinku Shokan!

Love the concept – the names!! The portmanteaus with -code are sooo amazing, it’s actually a custom card creator’s dream. And coming up with new parodies like Endcode Talker and Recode Talker is just so fun.[^code-talker-names] The artstyle as a whole works so well as the Cyberse bosses. Accesscode’s^↗ pretty lit.

[^code-talker-names]: What’d’y’know, this is an archetype I’ve remade into custom cards before 0.o

It’s a shame that most Code Talkers have pretty useless effects, and while make decent plot tools for the anime, can’t really see much usage irl. I get they existed for symmetry in the Attributes (+ enabling Extra Link), but then Heatsoul^↗ came along and messed it all up =|

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Cyber Dragon

Ngl, the archetype / deck is pretty much carried by a couple of key cards,[^cydra-carry] and most of the archetype is basically useless. Now it’s fine to have some cards that are better than others, but like… what even is Cyber Dragon Barrier^↗ doing…

As a whole, the deck has pretty much fallen behind in modern Yu-Gi-Oh. It lacks a lot of things that are really important nowadays, like some form of removal, protection, or even just the ability to set up more than 1 interruption turn 1 TvT. It also easily dies to any interruption, handtrap of removal. Really, the archetype just lacks toolboxing, which is pretty fair given it dates back to prehistoric Yu-Gi-Oh.[^prehistoric-yugioh]

[^cydra-carry]: Machine Duplication^↗, ofc. [^prehistoric-yugioh]: I’m using this to refer to when Fusion Summoning was all the rage, to be clear.

Nevertheless, it was pretty fun to play in Master Duel, when it worked. Infinity^↗ is a pretty nice Ace Monster (altho it’s a bit weak in the ATK department), and the Power Bond OTK was hella satisfying to pull off. It was a very ‘fast’ and efficient anime deck which was great for casual duels.

Also, the archetype has one of the coolest nicknames, so cool that it would be a wicked archetype name just on its own – Cydra.

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D/D/D

> power polyphony!

Power name, power concept, power archetype. Akaba Reiji with this was so basass in the anime, it was unreal. For sure one of the scariest antagonist decks. Names are a little wack, but the references to corporate positions is brilliant. Dark Contract^↗ is a flawless fit. I haven’t seen it much in actual Yu-Gi-Oh, but it’s definitely a Deck that takes a lot of brain juice.

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Dinomorphia

> we like to live dangerously

I really love the concept of this archetype, and it’s executed so well. The engine is small but efficient,[^dinomorphia-small] and there aren’t even that many different cards, yet it manages to pose a formidable threat. And it does that all while living life on the line, obstinately refusing to die. It’s such an anime deck, honestly.[^dinomorphia-anime]

[^dinomorphia-small]: 2 Main Deck Monsters is lowkey mad. [^dinomorphia-anime]: Anime decks are MY FAVOURITE!!

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Dogmatika

> beautiful sacrilege~

The highest form of praise (from me) is remaking an archetype.[^remake-archetype] It means I love the archetype so much, and I’m so inspired by it, that I want to make my own version or parody. In the case of Dogmatika that’s Dragmatika, which fixes (imho) a lot of the issues (including the name :P) and weaknesses of the archetype while toning down the ridiculous searching.

[^remake-archetype]: I’m joking, but I’m also not joking.

But talking about Dogmatika here, damn, what an archetype. Brimming with flavour, you can literally feel the lore churning within. We’ll start with the art, which is truly some of the most incredible in all of Yu-Gi-Oh. The Ritual Monsters are all feasts for the eyes, and many of the Main Deck Monsters are stunningly elegant. Art is often what draws me to archetypes, and it made me fall in love with Dogmatika.

Then we have to talk about the gimmick, which I really, really enjoy. I think this is just a me thing where I vibe with anything unconventional or against the meta – and rejecting the Extra Deck is perfectly that. Sure, being on the receiving end isn’t that fun,[^dogmatika-receive] but you gotta hand it to them, this is an awesomely funny mechanic. My only complaint is that this becomes sort of the only thing the Deck does, to the point where it sucks at a lot of other stuff – like actually putting up a defence.

[^dogmatika-receive]: Unless you’re Dogmatika Drytron!!

Alba Zoa^↗ was THE MOST insane boss monster I had ever anticipated. When I first saw it appear in a GoldenNovaYugioh^↗ Albaz lore video^↗, I– well, let’s not get too explicit. But DAMN. That art is out of this world. The effect is ridiculous, ridiculously cool. We could not have gotten a more fitting final boss for the Dogmatika archetype. Tho I still think “White Zoa of Dogmatika” should’ve been kept as the name :V

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Dragon Link

> wombo combo!

Not really very opinionated on this, moreso Borrel + Rokket. Like Pendulum Magician, its combos are really something, especially at full power when the banlist allows for it. Sometimes it even feels like their moves lose advantage, like when destroying monsters on field simply to recover a Rokket Synchron^↗?!

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Eldlich

I don’t know why, but the name just gives me the heebie-jeebies.

In all honesty, I don’t like this archetype very much. I don’t really vibe with the art style, and it’s just generally a bit frustrating to play against the constant cycling of Eldlich and various Traps. Like, you just can’t get rid of Eldlich the Golden Lord^↗. He keeps coming back.

It’s made worse by the fact the archetype is often combined with Zombie support like Zombie World^↗. Or even worse, just straight up floodgates, that was not uncommon at all in Master Duel.

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Exosister

> かわいい power!!

Having built this deck for my sister irl, I do ofc have some more attachment to it. I think the art is lovely, beyond the obvious waifu. You’ll see Mikailis and Magnifica listed in my favourite card arts. The naming scheme is also really elegant and unique – maybe it’s just due to how they’re translated, but the way “Mikailis” kiiinda incorporates Elis, “Asophiel” Sophia, “Kaspitell” Stella, and “Gibrine” Irene – oh my days, I wasn’t even planning on listing them all, but they’re actually all so well-done xD It’s subtle and ingenious, I love it so much.

The Deck feels a little like Raidraptor (pre-support-boom) to play, in that it’s rather heavily reliant on having the correct cards in hand, struggles to gather material, and ain’t great at recovery after everything goes wrong. It definitely has some powerful cards and effects, but a lot are somewhat situational, especially the Grave ones which depend on matchup. And while it can fairly reliably set up Magnifica^↗ turn 1, that combo line is easily choked by any handtrap.

What it lacks in strength, tho, it makes up for in flavour. Exosister is an archetype with focus – it knows exactly what it wants to do, and goes all out for it. Mikailis and Magnifica are really well-designed Ace Monsters, imho. Magnifica in particular has the perfect level of power, memorable effects and room for skilful plays, and it makes Exosister duels a lot more interesting than they otherwise would be. Unfortunately not utilising the Grave at all makes the deck a little rough to play in today’s world, especially since it easily runs out of resources easily.

Regardless, it’s a fun archetype, can do cool stuff – and was a great deck for introducing my sister to modern Yu-Gi-Oh ;D

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Floowandereeze

Get out.

Damn, I realise I get pretty emotive when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh. Floowandereeze is on the same Level as Spright – terribly boring, disgustingly efficient and a right pain in the neck. Its Normal Summons, to be clear, are not normal. They’re special Summons that aren’t called Special Summons. And they can do it during your turn, which plenty of Decks that Special Summon can’t even do!

Empen is a really oppressive and difficult-to-deal-with floodgate, exacerbated by the Deck’s horrific fixation on banishing which makes removal powerless.

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Gunkan

One of the archetypes I respect the most from a conceptual perspective. This is what Yu-Gi-Oh is about, get in! The flavour packed into this archetype is off the charts, what with DEF representing cost and Catch-of-the-Day^↗ simulating a frickin restaurant order *collapsing in laughter*. Unfortunately it can’t do that much as an archetype, at least from what I’ve seen.

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HERO

I’m not familiar with the whole archetype (and all the lore), so all I have to go off of here is what I see in Master Duel, and, well… it’s pretty repetitive. And also mostly just Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer^↗ :P

The deck doesn’t do much tbh, and I’m not that much of a fan of the art. I like how they split it into Elemental, Evil, etc. factions tho, it’s a cool way to add more dimensions to an archetype.[^hero-factions] The capitalisation on “HERO” is stylish too.

[^hero-factions]: Ofc, this would be less cool if overdone.

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Kaiju

I love this archetype’s existence, because while I have always loved playing unaffecteds,[^kaiju-unaffecteds] I do not think they are healthy for the game, and having more ways to deal with them is not a bad thing. The cards are also very well-designed to be useful but not too unfair,[^kaiju-unfair] preventing multiple from being used and Summoning to the opponent’s field (altho this has become more useful than not in recent years).

[^kaiju-unaffecteds]: Ultimate Falcon^↗. Actually, I’ve always loved protection of any kind. It just feels a bit stupid when your Ace Monster is so easily destroyed, y’know? Ofc, now I understand there are other ways of making a monster good… [^kaiju-unfair]: Fairer than Lava Golem^↗, at least…

And of course, as an Ultraman fan since childhood I absolutely adore the references to Ultraman Belial^↗ and Dark Lugiel^↗ in Radian ^↗, not least the whole theme of ‘kaiju’ itself.

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Kashtira

> I will sacrifice my soul to steal yours

Never have I ever hated an archetype as much as this, I don’t think. Purely from a design perspective, it’s way. too. overtuned. – and while that may not directly translate into power, it certainly makes the cards appear frustratingly unfair (at least to me).

The 3 Main Deck Monsters can all easily Special Summon themselves (materials – check), search a card (consistency – check), and act as interaction (disruption – check). None of those individual effects are problematic, but all 3 on a single card? Across 3 monsters!?

Arise-Heart^↗ literally reads like a custom card.[^arise-heart]

[^arise-heart]: Can confirm.

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Knightmare

As someone who doesn’t like generic Extra Deck Monsters, this whole archetype is just a relic from a stupid rule change (MR5^↗), and really shouldn’t exist. The fact any deck can easily access Trigger Effect-speed removal with barely any work is ludicrous, and it’s a massive reason for Yu-Gi-Oh’s crazy powercreep.

That being said, Knightmare is a great pun, and the concept behind them being corruped Mekk-Knights is wicked.

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Labrynth

> perfectly evil

I really respect Labrynth’s design. It’s an archetype that achieves exactly what it wants to without being unfair or broken (imho). Dangerous? Yep. Resilient? Very. Annoying as hell? You know it. But the difficulty in dealing with it makes for some really fun duels with loads of back-and-forth, just like with Branded and Dinomorphia.

It’s brutal, don’t get me wrong, but it takes skill to play well and has loads of creative interaction. A lot of its power definitely manifests through the non-archetypal traps they use, which I think is very understandable for a literal Trap deck. I also like that it’s a very focused archetype, with 2 clear bosses that synergise to control the game.

The handtraps, Quick Effects, and insta-activates are all necessary evils for keeping the Traps up to speed with the modern game. I don’t really like the fact Arianna can both draw you a card and straight up whip out a Level 8 ace tho, I think they stepped the line a bit with that one.

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Pendulum Magician

Damn, they really love their combos. It’s pretty cool to watch, but it’s pretty much carried by Heavymetalfoes Electrumite^↗, and just ends on a bunch of negates, which makes it less fun.

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P.U.N.K.

> full combo!

Really like the aesthetic. It’s a super quirky archetype with loads of flavour, but isn’t broken in any way – in fact, reading some of the effects, I used to wonder how these cards were even playable. After using it in my Centur-Ion deck tho, I’ve come to appreciate how useful just having a stray Lv3 Tuner on board can be.

Amazing Dragon^↗ is actually a really cool ace, and it’s a bit of a shame people don’t play it more. Got better things to do with P.U.N.K., I suppose TvT

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Sky Striker

> engage all targets!

My first experience of this was against a modified parody someone had created on DuelingBook, which is probably not the best first impression. But it’s grown on me for sure, much like Branded. I love the whole gimmick around having 1 ace monster that changes forms, helped by an arsenal of special moves.[^sky-striker-ace] Yes, some of the cards are a little broken (Engage^↗ and Multirole^↗ o.0), but the archetype as a whole works quite nicely – while annoying, it’s still chock-full of weaknesses.

[^sky-striker-ace]: MAXIMUM ANIME!!!

Sky Striker art is definitely some of my favourite in the game,[^sky-striker-art] and it’s even got a whole series of manga lore which I will read eventually.

[^sky-striker-art]: Ok, and Raye’s a little waifu, but come on.

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Spright

> wicked art for a soulless archetype

I’m gonna be real, Spright is a pretty boring and uncreative archetype. Like, love the name and art, but its playstyle is just… ass. Free Special Summons. From the Grave too, and during the opponent’s turn. Search cards. Negates. Boost ATK if needed.

I think the main problem with the archetype is that it doesn’t have any kind of boss monster at all (Gigantic Spright^↗ may be the ace, but it’s nowhere near a boss), which makes it heavily reliant on generic bosses and negates. If you analyse its design it’s just designed purely to win, not even have fun or do cool stuff. Which is one of the things I have the most.

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Swordsoul

> powercreep the wyrms

I’ve always disliked how nastily efficient the engine is – from the 1 card Synchro Summons to Mo Ye^↗ replacing itself – it just feels so heartless. And while I get making it xenophobic would weaken the archetype substantially, generic Synchros[^swordsoul-generic] are just so scummy. istx, if I see Mo Ye - Chixiao - Baronne 1 more time…

All that being said, Chengying and Qixing Longyuan are pretty sick ace monsters. They have a perfect ‘boss’ vibe to them, and are pretty creative effects-wise in a rather lowkey way – nothing extraordinary, but not just a negate. Their art is also kinda fire, as are the Chinese names xD. Oh yeah, and it’s part of the Branded storyline, which makes it instantly cooler.

[^swordsoul-generic]: It is always Baronne de Fleur^↗.

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Tearlaments

Firstly, I really love the art. Genuinely some of the most aesthetically brilliant Yu-Gi-Oh cards to ever exist.[^tear-art] The colour palette is stunning. Also, the name is incredible. Triple pun, just… perfection.

[^tear-art]: Also waifu material, ofc :v

With that out the way… hot take here, I actually really like the way the archetype is designed, with the exception of a few cards.

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Visas

> what in the world?!

I’m gonna use this to cover the hybrid decks built from Visas^↗, Scareclaw^↗, Mannadium^↗, and occasionally Kashtira^↗, which are all part of the Visas Starfrost^↗ storyline.

I’m not a fan of the ridiculous searching from a card design point of view, but holy hell is this mesmerising to watch. It’s insane how it just keeps on going, churning out monster after monster. As a custom card creator one of the hardest things you could ever do is design 2 archetypes that synergise almost perfectly while still retaining their own gimmicks and character – which makes it so unbelievably cool how Visas manages to meld 3 archetypes (or more, depending how you count it!). I mean come on, they’re running 4 Field Spells for xenique’s sake! What is this!?

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Ursarctic

> learn from our failures

Man, I was so excited when I find out Drytron had sister archetype. Even more so when it broke its Summoning mechanic too, by using Dark Synchro Summoning^↗ to Synchro Summon a Level 1 Monster!

But yeah, this archetype just doesn’t work, does it? Mediocre boss monsters, a crappy engine, and effects that don’t do its art justice. Its critical weaknesses is that it loses hand advantage so damn quickly – if it just did the same thing as Drytron and allowed Special Summoning from the Grave, or had more effects to recycle Monsters from the Grave, it’d be that much better.

I wanted to try using the crossover with Drytron, but yeah, Ultimate Flagship Ursatron^↗ does literally nothing. Such a shame because it has a wicked name. Come on, Konami!

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Valyantz

> hold on, what game were we playing again?

Vaylantz. Right, not “Valyzantz”. /'veilants/.

I was so bewildered when I first faced this archetype, watching helplessly as my Draconids got thrown into the backrow.[^vaylantz-encounter] What strange sorcery was unfurling before my eyes?? From the Field Spells alone, I knew stuff was getting crazy.

[^vaylantz-encounter]: I think I was bricking as well, so I had a basically empty hand and field 💀

Crazy, crazy archetype. Top creativity. It’s not executed in the most perfect way, but it’s awesome either way. I love the little nods to other board games, like how the monsters spawn from the Pendulum Zones.

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